Welcome Back!

We hope this letter finds you and your family in good health.  Our world 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 infections control processes are made so that when you receive care, it’s both safe and comfortable.  We want to tell you about the infection control procedures we follow in our practice to keep our patients and our team safe.

Our office follows infection control recommendations made by the American Dental Association (ADA), the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).  We monitor activities of these agencies so that we are up-to-date on any new rulings or guidance that may be issued.  We do this to make sure that our infection control procedures are current and adhere to each agency’s recommendations.

You may see changes when it is time for your next appointment.  We made these changes to help protect our patients and team.  For example:

• It is important that you reach out to confirm your appointments at least 24 BUSINESS HOURS IN ADVANCE.  We have 2 months of appointments that need to be rescheduled.  If you are unable to keep your appointment, there are patients who have been on a wait list and are in need of being seen.  Giving us time to notify others of the availability is VERY important to those patients in need.
• We have a Covid screening questionnaire that will have to be discussed THREE times.  We will communicate with you a day or two prior to your appointment to ask the questions, you will be asked the questions again when you arrive, and we will follow up with you 48 hours after your appointment.  You may tire of these questions, but they have to be asked for the safety of you as well as everyone who enters our office. 
• You are now able to fill out health history updates and the Covid questionnaire online prior to your appointment- we may send you a link through text or email so that you can fill those out at least 24 hours prior to your appointment! The first time you check in online through the link, you will have to enter your information including insurance- if you have the same insurance you had the last time you were here, you can just click “I don’t have the insurance information” to bypass that.
• If you have an illness, please reschedule your appointment!
• Our doors will remain locked to the outside.  Please call when you arrive.  If we are not ready to seat you in your sterilized treatment room, we may have you wait in your vehicle or outside our front door. There is no waiting in the reception area at this time.  We can call you to meet us at the door when we are ready to seat you.
• Please wear a mask in the office until you are asked to remove it for treatment. 
• We will be taking your temperature before you enter the office and will get you seated in the treatment room that is set up for your visit.
• We ask that you enter the office alone.  If you have family members with you, for the time being, we will ask that they wait out of the office.
• You will see hand sanitizer in the office for you to use as needed.
• Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing. That may mean that you are offered fewer options for scheduling your appointments. We will be trying to keep your appointment times to a set limit so that we are better able to keep everyone distanced accordingly.
• Our hygiene appointments may run 1 hour to 1 ½ hours so allow yourself a little more time!
• 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 arriving and leaving at the same time.

We look forward to seeing you 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 @ (858) 358-5801.

Thank you for being our patient.  We value your trust and loyalty and look forward to welcoming back our patients, neighbors and friends!

Regards,

Dr Dhir and Team

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