Infection control has always been a top priority for our practice. And due to the pandemic, we have added numerous extraordinary protections to keep our patients and staff safe and comfortable, while providing the dental care essential to oral health.

These protocols begin before you even walk through the door—

• Appointments managed to allow for social distancing and to reduce the number of people in the office at any one time. Masks are required.
• Patients can call and wait in their car instead of the office. Stairs are an option to avoid the elevator.
• Upon entering patients use hand sanitizer, forehead temperature is checked, a detailed Covid health screening form is filled out.
• A high volume air purifier in the waiting room uses carbon and HEPA filters, and UV-C lights cleans the air. Removed the waiting room magazines, children’s toys, books, etc, as those are difficult to clean and disinfect. Doors are now hands-free.
• We wear N95 masks, gloves, face shields and additional protective gear. Pretreatment rinsing with anti-microbial mouthwash reduces oral flora levels.
• When treatment begins, an air evacuation system is positioned inches from your mouth removing aerosols and exhaled breath from the treatment zone. That air is processed through carbon filters, HEPA filters, UV-C lights, as well as a plasma generating ionizing chamber, removing nearly 100% of the pathogens and particles, before returning the treated air to the room.
• There is also a large wall-mounted state-of-the-art high volume air exchange, sterilization and decontamination unit in the treatment room.. All room air recalculates through it ten times an hour. On every pass (as opposed to other systems) air is purified and disinfected through carbon and HEPA filters, an array of UV-C lights, and also processed by a titanium dioxide photocatalytic oxidation reactor. (The unit also has a snazzy blue light)
  
  These all combine to remove or kill 99.9999% of airborne virus, bacteria, mold, fungi, and neutralizes noxious gasses, dust, dander, other allergens; and then only cleansed air is circulated out.
• Another of these snazzy blue light wall units is in our front office/check-out area.
• There is also an overhead hospital-grade UV-C light fixture in the treatment room to sanitize the air and surfaces.
• The air and surfaces of the entire office are also treated by cold fogging with an aerosolized bactericidal, virucidal, disinfectant and sanitizer.
• To keep air flowing there is a hall HEPA unit, upgraded filter in the central heat and air-conditioner with the highest MERV (level of filtration) rating possible, and the exhaust fans in the darkroom and bathroom kept running.

All of this on top of the stringent infection control measures office has always taken. These meet and usually exceed, all regulations, recommendations and guidelines from the CDC, OSHA, the American Dental Association, as well as local, state and federal agencies.

You can see why we believe these extensive overlapping precautions (probably overkill, but in a good way) and multilayered systems lead us to believe we now have one of the most Covid-free, pathogen-free and safest, office and treatment environments anywhere.