During this pandemic and increased regulations and precautions, we are left with many questions – what can we and can’t we do? Unlike the first lockdown in the spring of 2020, dentistry as a whole is now deemed essential. Regular dental visits including hygiene appointments and all dental services are permissible.
Maintaining overall health, including oral health, is important during this time for several reasons.
I. When oral hygiene is neglected, dental emergencies arise and patients must go to the emergency room and this is not ideal. Our hospitals need to be available for more urgent care and not be under threat of becoming overwhelmed.
II. Also, having an overall body that is healthy, including your oral health, has been linked to a stronger immune system. With a stronger immune system, we are better at fighting diseases.
Stressing the value of overall health, both physical and mental, at this time is something that we all should strive for ourselves and help each other achieve. So please try to look after yourself, your loved ones, and your neighbours.
In order to ensure your safety while visiting our office, we have taken the following precautions:
• Prescreening all patients before appointments.
• Screening and temperature checking both staff and patients when they arrive.
• Staff are encouraged to stay home when ill and are needed to be cleared prior to returning to work.
• The use of proper PPE is enforced.
• Clinical rooms undergo proper air cleaning protocols between patients based on an HVAC professional assessment (see below).
• We follow latest guidelines for sterilization, IPAC.
• Whipping down all common areas regularly.
• Hand sanitizer is available.
We have installed IQ care professional purifiers throughout the offices to ensure that we have met the specifications by the CDC and Health Canada to allow for proper air cleaning and circulation to ensure that our air is safe and clean. On top of that, we have installed Sanuvox, UV lighting in our duck work and HVAC system to ensure that the air is again sterilized upon return to our office. Basically, the cleaner the air and surfaces, the safer for staff and patients and that is our #1 concern.
The Ontario Dental Association has said that minimal to no cases have been linked to dental offices.
We recognize that families and people at this time could be going through some financial difficulties and we thought about how we can help. The logical conclusion was to try to make dental care more affordable, so with that said we have decided to accept direct billing of insurance. We’ll do our best to help you maximize the benefits that you have for the care that you need, minimizing or eliminating the need for you to pay up front. For those of you who do not have insurance, will always do our best to explain our fees and offer interest-free financing.
We hope you are doing well, and your healthy, Dr Paulo Viana
