What we are continuing to do to keep you and your family safe at MMD
- Dear Patients and Friends of MMD:
We hope this letter finds you and your family in good health. Our community has been through a lot over the last few months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While many things have changed, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to your care and 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’s 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 closely follows infection control recommendations made by the American Dental Association (ADA), the Georgia Dental Association (GDA), 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. We do this to make sure that our infection control procedures are current and adhere to each agencies’ recommendations.
You will see a lot of changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to help protect both our patients and staff. For example:
- In the interest of maintaining a safe environment for our patients, their families and our staff, we continue to require that everyone two and older wear a mask throughout their time in our office. These guidelines follow the CDC’s most recent Federal Masking Guidance which indicates that healthcare settings should continue to require all patients and visitors to wear masks indoors. We feel that universal mask use in our office is the best way to protect all of our patients including those too young to be immunized or wear a mask. We ask that ONLY the patient being seen come into our office and a “ventless” face mask or facial covering MUST be worn. If the patient being seen is a minor child ONE parent or guardian may accompany the child into the office, again both must be wearing a “ventless” mask or facial covering. If a patient is handicapped or needs physical assistance getting into the office, ONE person / caretaker can accompany them to into the office.
- Our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. You’ll be asked to go to our website to review and sign our Covid-19 questionnaire and consent form. You will be asked the same questions again when you arrive at the office.
- We will have you wash your hands with soap and water when you enter the office. We will also have you swish with a antibacterial rinse prior to treatment to lessen the microbiome in your saliva prior to treatment.
- You may see that our waiting room will no longer offer magazines, children’s toys and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect.
- We have medical grade Hepa Filtration systems throughout the office to mitigate aerosols.
- We have upgraded our evacuation/suction systems to to keep aerosols to a minumum. This step exceeds the recommended guidelines from the CDC, ADA and the GDA.
- We have installed sterilizers in our HVAC system.
- We have installed plexiglass barriers at the front desk to minimize exposure for you and our team members.
- Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you’re offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment. We may ask you to wait in your car after you check in until your treatment room is ready, etc.
- We will do our best to allow greater time between patients to reduce your wait to be seen.
- Our team members have been equipped with protective gear such as N95 masks, face shields, gloves and gowns to ensure minimum contact with both germs and viruses.
For the safety of yourself, others and our team members, we ask that ALL patients wear a mask upon entering and leaving our office. Homemade masks are fine as long as they cover both the nose and mouth. We are sorry but MMD CANNOT supply any masks as PPE is in such short supply.
We look forward to seeing you again and are happy to answer any questions you may have about the steps we are taking to keep you, and every patient, safe in our practice.Your Team MMD:)