COVID-19 Dental Office Safety Protocol – Covington, LA

Our Commitment
to Your Safety

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 24 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 offices.

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'll never underestimate the power of a smile!

Advanced Staff Training

Each member of our team has completed additional awareness and prevention programs to enhance their knowledge and preparedness.

Safety Champion

Each day, one person will be designated to guide our Commitment to Safety. This includes greeting patients, answering questions, ensuring social distancing, and overall monitoring.

No Handshakes or Hugs

We truly do love our patients. However, we will save our hearty welcomes and goodbyes for a later date when things are "back to normal".

Personal Hygiene Standards

Along with short hair or hair that is worn up; this means no long fingernails, no jewelry, and no watches for any team member while in the dental office.

Laundry Center in Our Dental Office

In the past, you might have seen us at the grocery in our stylish scrubs. No Longer. Now, our team members have been instructed to change clothes before leaving and wash their scrubs at home or in our laundry center.

Anti-Microbial Rinse

In addition to brushing and flossing before your visit, we will provide you with a swig of anti-microbial to swish in your mouth for 20 seconds.

Virtual Waiting Room

Now, you can check-in from your car. As a result, you are able to minimize contact with others, bypass the reception area, and go directly to your treatment room.

Sequenced Patient Scheduling

Plain and simple, we are not seeing as many patients. We are allocating more time between visits for coming, going and cleaning.

Hand Santizing Station

Every patient will be asked to thoroughly disinfect their hands before entering the clinical area of our dental office.

Pre-Screening of Every Patient

A quick health screening along with a forehead temperature check will be completed at our hand sanitizing station when you arrive at our dental office.

Expanded Patient Appointments

We have always emphasized the importance and value of our patients’ time by offering same-day dentistry. This is more important now to help our patients consolidate trips to our dental office.

Family Friendly Scheduling

We are now able to see up to 6 family members during the same visit. It is almost like your own, private dental experience.

Teledentistry

Some consultations and follow-up visits can be handled via our secure, patient communication portal. It is a cool, ultra-safe, and efficient extension of our dental office.

Social Distancing in Place

Spaced seating in our reception room, the ability to wait in your car until your appointment time, private rooms, and coordinated movement through the dental office make 6’ spacing a practical reality.

Cleaning After Every Appointment

We have always been super clean as we thoroughly wipe, sanitize and disinfect all instruments, equipment and surfaces in each operatory after every patient.

Cleaning Throughout the Day

Surfaces in the dental office are wiped down throughout the day to keep anything you may come in contact with sterile, such as countertops and handles.

CDC-Approved Instrument Sterilization

This is standard at all times, and nothing has changed. Anything that goes near your mouth is heat and pressure cleaned between every use. We even use a test strip to make sure our sterilization equipment is doing its job.

N95 & ASTM Level 3 Masks

The beautiful smiles of our clinical team – dentists, hygienists, and assistants – will be protected behind N95 or Level 3 masks at all times.

Front Desk Masks

Even our friendly administrative team will be wearing ASTM Level 3 masks. Don’t worry. They are smiling behind those masks!

Face Shields

Two masks are not enough. Our clinical team will also protect you and themselves through the use of FDA Approved PET face shields.

Washable, Protective Coats and Hats

When appropriate, our team will utilize another layer of protection to minimize the spread or absorption of airborne particles.

UV Smartphone Box

This cool contraption allows us to kill 99.99% of bacteria on any smartphone in 60 seconds. If a phone enters our dental office, it will have a timeout in this box.

Advanced Chairside Suction

Whenever necessary, we will activate high speed evacuation to minimize aerosol contamination and improve air quality.

HEPA Air Filtration

Our air has never been cleaner. Along with high-efficiency filters in our HVAC system, we have added stand-alone Hepa filtration systems to each operatory and our reception room.

No Magazines or Activities

This may make our reception area a little less exciting, but it makes it much safer as well.