We hope this letter finds you and your family in good health. Our community has been through a lot over the last few years, and all of us are still 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 previous visits to our office. Our infection control processes are made so that when your family receives care, it’s both safe and comfortable.
Our office has always followed infection control recommendations made by the American Dental Association (ADA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/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.
Based upon these guidelines, you will see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to continue to help protect our patients and staff.
COVID-19 Guidelines (updated 3/2022)
Pre-Appointment
- Please reschedule your appointment if any family member is feeling sick or feverish.
- Scheduling will be managed to allow for less exposure between patients. That may mean fewer options for scheduling appointments.
- 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 in the reception area at any one time.
- We will text or email all pre-appointment documents electronically in advance.
- We expect those to be completed at least a day prior to your appointment time.
- If they are not completed, any substantial delay may require rescheduling your appointment.
During Appointments
- All persons over the age of 3yo must wear a mask to the appointment. This is by order of the California Dept of Public Health for all Healthcare Facilities.
- Please try to minimize the number of non-patient family members who come to an appointment, so as to minimize potential exposure and need and time for cleaning the waiting room.
- If you choose to remain in the waiting room, and there is another family present, please practice social distancing as much as possible.
- We request that Parents remain in the Waiting Room during treatment to minimize exposure to staff and other patients.
- At the discretion of the dentist, here are a few exceptions to the no parent rule:
- New Patients with younger children
- All In-lap exams for younger children
- Children with Special Needs
- Children (not parents) who exhibit very high dental anxiety and are likely to forego treatment otherwise
Further Protection
- We have hand sanitizer available that we ask you to use when you enter the office.
- We are still not offering magazines, children’s toys and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect.
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 or text our office at 916.251.0170.
For any further updates, you can also visit us on our Facebook page.
Thank you for being our patient. We value your trust and loyalty.
Caring Tree Team
