COVID-19 Updates and Policies

Dear friends, We hope this message finds you and yours healthy as the COVID-19 virus impacts our community. We have all had to make huge adjustments in this time of pandemic. Dentistry is no different. The Profession, as a whole, has challenges to overcome. Dunn Dental had been utilizing the “Stay at home” orders as a time to adapt and overcome the new challenges COVID-19 has presented. And now that we have our Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), we are ready and eager to start servicing our patients again.

 

We are considering the health of our patients, staff and the community. We are serving our patients in the safest manner possible and following the advice of the CDC and the ADA. We have worked hard creating a safe environment to ensure patient safety and health at our office. Now that elective procedures and dentists are allowed to resume treating again, we are excited to have reopened.

 

We have always adhered to the highest standard of infection control at Dunn Dental Group. The risks have never been zero, but as we look at the unique challenges COVID-19 presents we have added many levels of protection to reduce the risk as close to zero as we can.

 

Our office follows infection control recommendations made 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 are going above and beyond those recommendations to create the safest space possible for you and your family to receive the care you need. You will see many changes now that the health department allows for elective surgeries and dental practices to resume. Dunn Dental has disinfected the entire office and has more frequent disinfection protocols. We started these disinfection protocols prior to closure. In addition:

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• We have reduced the number of appointments and staggering patient appointments to minimize the number of people in the office to allow for social distancing. Only patients being treated are allowed - no guests. If the patient is a child under 18 one parent or guardian is allowed to accompany the child.

• Each patient is required to screen for symptoms of COVID-19 via phone at time of scheduling. There will be an additional screening during the confirmation phone call to ensure they have not had any contact with a possible COVID-19 patient.

• Seating in the waiting room is prohibited.

• All reading material has been removed to reduce contamination.

• You will be asked to wait outside of the office and call us when you arrive, your provider will come to escort you when your dental chair is ready.

• Upon arrival, you will be given a mask (if you did not have one), asked to wash your hands or use hand sanitizer that we will provide, and have your temperature taken. Please keep your cell phones in your pockets from the moment you enter the waiting room until you leave the office (cell phones carry a lot of bacteria and viruses). 

• You will be asked to swish with a diluted hydrogen peroxide rinse that kills COVID-19.

• As our office design is open concept, we have isolated each bay with plastic for strictly controlled individual environments.

• Each Operatory is outfitted with a virus killing air purifier that exceeds medical grade requirements (super HEPA filtration). We are also installing these purifiers in the waiting room and administration desk to clean the rest of the office air.

• For procedures that require aerosols either a rubber dam (isolation device) and/or high evacuation suction (HVE) machines will be used; they are a high-power suction machine placed near the mouth (they don’t touch you) that will clear the aerosols and use HEPA filtration to remove 99.97% of viruses.

• We will look different! No … we do not have space suits and won’t look like the character in the movie “Contagion”. We are, however, exceeding the required OSHA standards. Our goal is to create the safest office environment for you and your families. As a result, our practice has implemented a PPE fee for all treatment ($20 for Hygiene, $35.00 for treatment with Dr. Dunn under 40 mins, and $50.00 for treatment over 50 mins).

• If point of contact testing becomes available, I hope to gain access to the test kit in order to add an additional layer of screening.

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We have been and continue to be available for emergencies (infection, swelling, pain, trauma) by appointment. We have had several inquiries by spouses and friends on behalf of a loved one whose current dentist is not available. We are accepting new patients and would be happy to see an emergency case. No one should be in pain or have an infection go untreated. To reach Dr. Dunn in an emergency please call/text (603)707-0798. This is her personal cell phone so please be courteous.

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We thank you for your patience and understanding and look forward to caring for you and your families again. We hope all of you are staying safe. We are all in this together during this stressful time, please take care of yourself and those around you.

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Kindest Regards, Noelle Dunn, DMD and all the team members of Dunn Dental Group