A COVID Update Brought To You By Dr. Ryan
Here at Sawgrass Pediatric Dentistry We Are Committed to Your and Your Child's Health and Safety!
Dental offices have always been very careful making infection control and patient safety a top priority for our patients and our team members. To further protect you and your family we have put into place new infection control measures recommended by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD), the American Dental Association (ADA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The reason we have implemented these changes is to provide a safe and secure environment and experience for you and your child.
Changes You May Notice on Your Next Visit
When you and your child come in for a dental appointment, the dental experience will include new health safeguard measures. Some of these changes will include:
-
Our team members will communicate with you before your appointment to review our prescreening questions and protocols that we will be implementing related to COVID-19. You and your child will be asked these same questions again when you come for your appointment to ensure there have been no changes in you or your child's health. Our screening questionnaire can also be found on this page.
-
You will receive a text message to contact us, or you can call us when you arrive for your child's appointment from your car. We will then confirm with you that you can come on in or, we may ask you to wait for a few minutes to assure social distancing and to allow us to thoroughly sanitize the treatment areas/rooms to protect you and your child.
-
We will have hand sanitizer at our screening desk in the lobby, and we will ask you to use it when you come in for your appointment. We are also asking parents and children to wear protective facemasks when you come in for your appointment.
-
In our reception area, we have removed all magazines, children’s toys, and games since those items are difficult to clean and sanitize routinely.
-
Appointments are being scheduled and managed to allow for proper social distancing between patients. This may mean that you are offered fewer appointment options when scheduling. We are also going to be running our office in a manner of treatment and hygiene days, so the appointments offerings will also be fewer because of this as well.
-
We are asking that only one parent or guardian accompany the patient to their appointment. If you are comfortable with bringing your child in for the screening process and then returning to your car and waiting while they have their appointment, that is fine, and we will contact you when their appointment is completed.
-
We will do our best to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting times as well and to reduce the number of patients in any area of our office at one time.
-
We have added air purifiers in our treatment rooms as well as open bay areas. These air purifiers help to remove 99.9% of air particles and have HEPA 13 filters in them. They will be running during our day, and they do make noise.
-
We also have added increased personal protective equipment (PPE) to our routine and treatment visits. We have incorporated respirators and face shields into our normal PPE along with patient drapes and suction equipment.
-
All team members will be screened at the beginning of their shifts and will be asked to leave if they have positive responses (YES) to the questions listed in our questionnaire as well.
With these new patient and team member safety measures, we want to not only safeguard your and our health but we want you to feel confident and comfortable when you and your child come to see us at Sawgrass Pediatric Dentistry.
Health Screening Before and During Your Visit
As we mentioned above, prior to your appointment we will be contacting you by phone to review our pre-screening information as well as to review screening questions related to COVID-19. When you and your child come in for the appointment we will ask the same health questions again to assure there have been no health changes report.
Here are the health questions you will see on our questionnaire:
-
Do you have a fever or above normal temperature?
-
Have you experienced shortness of breath or had trouble breathing?
-
Do you have a dry cough?
-
Do you have a runny nose?
-
Have you recently lost or had a reduction in your sense of smell?
-
Do you have a sore throat?
-
Have you been in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19?
-
Have you tested positive for COVID-19?
-
Have you been tested for COVID-19 and are awaiting results?
-
Have you traveled outside the United States by air or cruise ship in the past 14 days?
-
Have you traveled within the United States by air, bus, or train within the past 14 days?
We will be taking every child and parent's temperature at our screening desk as well.
Any positive responses (YES) to any of these questions will result in the rescheduling of the appointment for a minimum of two weeks. While we understand this is an inconvenience to be rescheduled, it again is for the safety and well being of all patients and staff members.
Your Child's and Your Health, as well as Comfort, are Our Primary Concern
We all know that changes of any kind to our routines, and we have all experienced them recently, or our expectations can be uncomfortable. We are taking this time to share some of these changes you and your child may experience at their visit so there is more comfort when you come in for the next appointment. Please know that our hope is to make visits comfortable, that patient's feel appreciated and know the concern we have for their dental health and well-being as well as feeling safe and confident coming to our office.
If you have any questions about our changes or in general, please just give us a call at 843-236-7500 or email us at sawgrass.pedo@gmail.com and we will be glad to answer or explain anything to you.
Also when you are in for your child's next appointment and you have questions please just ask one of our team members. We love helping all of our patients understand their dental health and how our office works to provide the best care in the safest environment possible.
Thank you for trusting Sawgrass Pediatric Dentistry with your child's dental health. We value you and your child as patients in our practice and we look forward to welcoming you back.
With love,
Dr. Ryan
& Sawgrass Pediatric Dentistry Team Members