DENTAL OFFICE SAFETY PROTOCOL – MARLTON, NJ

Our Commitment to Safety

Dear friends,

COVID-19 has been a very difficult time for all of us. Many of you have been forced to wait for dental care, and we deeply appreciate your understanding while we kept our office closed to help control the spread of the coronavirus.

We are happy to say that we are planning to reopen our office for patient treatment on 05/26/2020. Our hours of operation initially will be 9:00 am - 5:00 pm.

Your health and well-being continue to be our highest priority, and we are ONLY opening because we have carefully planned and revised our office procedures to greatly minimize the risk of infection for our patients and our team members. Keeping our patients, team members, and their families safe and healthy is paramount.

For your peace of mind and safety, we will be adopting a number of new protocols to provide a safe dental treatment experience and ask for your cooperation and strict adherence. These include, but are not limited to, the following:

Before Your Appointment

• In order to provide a safe environment, we will not be seeing as many patients each day. We will be allocating more time between patient visits for coming, going, and disinfecting. We ask that you do not schedule an appointment unless you are certain that you can make it.
• We may give you the option of a teledental visit to evaluate dental problems or concerns. This may or may not eliminate the need for an in-person office visit saving you time, reducing your cost, and conserving our Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) supply.
• We will be asking you to either verbally or electronically complete a COVID screening questionnaire.
• Please ask any questions about payments due on the phone to minimize the time you need outside our treatment rooms after your visit. Let us know if there has been any change to your employment status or dental insurance.
• The cost of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has gone up 300-400% as a result of demand (and perhaps gouging). To help to partially offset the high costs of buying the required additional Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), we will be collecting a $12 surcharge for each visit. We regret the need to do so, and may adjust this if the costs of PPE rise or fall. Your insurance may or may not reimburse you for this.
• All of our patient forms are now available on our website, www.sandbergdentistry.com and should preferably be completed before your appointment. You can scan and email to sandbergdentistry@gmail.com or fax them to 856-596-1726.

Upon Your Arrival at the Office

• Patients are asked to wait in their cars or outside the office until invited inside by text or phone. Please call us at 856-596-4333 when you arrive.
• Patients, as well as team members will be screened before entering the office and must be wearing a face mask, and ask that you do not wear gloves. We will provide hand sanitizer as you enter. Any patients showing signs of a fever or other symptoms of illness will be asked to reschedule their appointment.
• Only patients will be allowed entry into the office. Parents and other family members will be asked to wait outside whenever possible.
• Upon entering, wait in the vestibule and we will open the door, take your temperature, and escort you directly to your disinfected treatment room.
• The waiting area chairs will be spaced apart to allow for 6 feet of distancing if you need to wait inside.
• We will ask that you continue to practice social distancing measures in common areas of the office, including the front desk.
• The front door and the door between the waiting area and operatories will be propped open all day.
• There will be no physical contact with patients with the exception of treatment.

During Treatment

• All rooms will be cleaned and disinfected before each patient is seated, and public areas, including restrooms, will be cleaned and sterilized frequently throughout the day.
• All operatories have been isolated and are ventilated with high powered exhaust window fans. Studies have shown that ventilation to outside air is critical to reducing airborne virus.
• Our team will strictly follow guidelines set forth by the CDC, OSHA, and ADA in regards to personal protective equipment (PPE) and office sterilization.
• During patient care, goggles or face shields will be worn by all team members that are providing your care.
• All surfaces that come in contact with the patient will be treated with disinfectant.

Checking Out After Your Appointment

• Clear panels will be in place at the front desk to protect against respiratory droplets from either side.
• All payments are to be made in the reception area behind the sneeze guard shield. Please exit promptly after your payment.

We are proceeding with an abundance of caution, but we want you to feel as confident as we do that any visit you make to our office will be a safe one. To schedule an appointment, to discuss payment options, or ask us any questions you may have about your next visit, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 856-596-4333. We look forward to seeing you soon!

We recognize times have changed. Priorities have shifted. Today, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our staff and patients.

With this in mind, we are happy to share the 22 additional steps we are taking to make every visit to our office as safe as possible. These actions are incremental to our normal standards of care that meet or exceed all CDC, OSHA and ADA guidelines for dental practices.

Our goal is to add peace-of-mind to the friendliness and clinical excellence you have come to expect. Of course, this is part of an on-going commitment that will evolve with the times. As always, we welcome the opportunity to answer any of your questions and to address all concerns.

We are in this together, and we will never underestimate the power of a smile!