To Our Dear Patients,
We hope this letter of information finds you and your family in good health. Our community has been through a lot over the last few months, and all of us are looking forward to resuming our normal habits and routines. While many things have changed, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to your safety. Infection control has always been a top priority for our practice and you may have seen this during your visits to our office. Our infection control processes are made so that when you receive care, it is both safe and comfortable. We want to tell you about the infection control procedures we follow in our practice to keep patients and staff safe. Our office follows infection control recommendations made by the American Dental Association (ADA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). We follow the activities of these agencies so that we are up-to-date on any new rulings or guidance that may be issued. You may see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to help protect our patients and staff.
Some of the changes you will notice in our office:
- Our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask for some screening questions. You will be asked those same questions again when you are in the office.
- Rather than in our reception area, you will be asked to wait outside or in your car. We will contact you on your phone to notify you when your appointment will begin before entering, in order to reduce the number of people in close distance within our office.
- We also may perform a no-touch temperature check on our patients prior to entry into the office. All patients will be required to wear a mask to enter our office and must not take it off until instructed to do so for dental evaluations and treatment. All dental staff will wear masks at all times.
- We have hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use when you enter the office.
- We are adding plexiglass sneeze guards to our front desk area, HEPA air filters throughout the office that filter virus-size particles, a broad scale fogger for disinfection, stronger suction for aerosol sprays, and additional cleaning measures throughout the day.
- We will do our best to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting times for you, as well as to reduce the number of patients in the reception area at any one time.
- We kindly ask that the patient goes to the treatment area independently. Siblings and friends not scheduled for treatment should not attend the appointment.
- If you are a new patient, please print out forms from our website and complete them prior to the appointment. You may email them back, even if it is a screenshot. We are minimizing the amount of paper and pen exchange in the office.
- We want to reduce the number of visits you need to make to your dental providers. Please clearly explain your dental concerns when scheduling so that we may advise you directly to a specialist if necessary for your needs. If you are unsure as to what type of appointment you should make, please reach out to us and we can further guide you.
We look forward to seeing you again and are happy to answer any questions you may have about the steps we take to keep you, and every patient, safe in our practice. To make an appointment, please call our office at office number 310-315-3676, or email us at info@mydentistsantamonica.com. Thank you for being our patient. We value your trust and loyalty and look forward to welcoming back our patients, neighbors, and friends.
Sincerely,
Dr. Oliveira, Dr. Sierra, Linh, and our dental team