We hope this letter finds you and your family in good health. Our community has been through a lot over the last few months and all of us are looking forward to resuming our normal habits and routines. While many things have changed, one thing has remained the same, our commitment to your health 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 implemented 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 team members safe.
Our offices follow infection control recommendations issued by the American Dental Association (ADA), 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 released. We do this to make sure that our infection control procedures are current and adhere to each agencies’ recommendations.
Additionally, you may see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We are making these changes to help protect our patients and team members. For example:
- Our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. You’ll be asked those same questions again when you are at the office.
- Please call our “Appointment Arrival Line” when you arrive for your appointment, rather than coming into the office as this will help with social distancing. Appointment Arrival Line for Greece Office is: 585-498-4948. Appointment Arrival Line for Henrietta Office is: 585-629-5458
- We have hand sanitizer in the reception area that we will ask you to use when you enter the office. You will also find some throughout the office for you to use as needed.
- You will see that our reception area has changed. At this time, we will no longer be offering magazines, children’s toys and so forth, as these items are more difficult to clean and disinfect. Additionally, we have removed most seating so as to promote social distancing.
- We have installed glass sneeze guards throughout the business office area to protect both patients and staff.
- Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. We will continue to accommodate scheduling requests as best as possible, but may have some limitations as we have modified our schedule with your safety as a priority. We will do our best to strategically schedule appointments in an effort to reduce wait times for you, as well as to reduce the number of patients in the reception area at any one time.
- You may notice that some treatment modalities may be modified to increase safety. For example, taking patient temperatures upon arrival for scheduled appointments, oral rinses prior to treatment, and some treatment modifications to help reduce aerosols such as HEPA air purifiers in all treatment rooms, etc. Our number one priority is the health and safety of our patients and team members.
- For dental hygiene appointments, we temporarily may not be able to provide the same treatment modalities that you are accustomed to, including prophy polishing paste, prophy jet, and ultrasonic scalers. Please know that this is for the safety of our team and patients.
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 in our practice safe. To make an appointment, please call our office at 585-865-7030 or 585-334-8350 or visit our website at www.cornerstonedentalny.com.
Thank you for being our patient. We value your trust and loyalty and look forward to welcoming back our patients, neighbors and friends.
Sincerely, Drs. Palermo, Malatesta, Valerio and Team Members
