How We’re Making Your Next Visit a Safer One
As a trusted family dental care provider in McKinney, Dr. Lawrence and the rest of our team at McKinney Smiles want to welcome back all of our patients after their time away during quarantine. Now that patients can once again receive non-emergency dental care, we hope to see all of your familiar faces at our office. Of course, even as most of us slowly return to our daily routines during COVID-19, many patients remain apprehensive about making a trip to visit their family dental care provider in McKinney.
Steps we take to help prevent infection – such as wearing a mask and practicing social distancing – are simply not possible when having your teeth cleaned or a cavity filled. This can make some patients feel nervous or uncertain about the idea of visiting a dentist for non-emergency care. However, regular dental care still plays an important role in helping to protect your oral and overall health. Lowering your risk for tooth decay, gum disease, and other common health problems offers immense value, especially during a pandemic.
You should know that the health and safety of every one of Dr. Lawrence’s patients remains our top priority. We’ve taken numerous steps to ensure that each visit to our office is as safe and as low-risk as possible. To help better place your mind at ease, let’s take a look at what you can expect during your next visit.
Before Your Visit
If you ever feel uncertain about showing up for an appointment, we encourage you to call our office in advance to discuss your concerns. A member of our team will always be happy to walk you through how we’ve changed our office to meet the safety demands of COVID.
Additionally, you can expect to hear from a member of our team before your appointment. Someone from our office will call to let you know about our new procedures and to conduct a pre-appointment COVID screening interview. You’ll be asked basic questions regarding the current state of your health, whether you’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19, and whether you’ve tested positive in the past.
You may also hear about the new procedures we’ve put into place to minimize patient contact. We’ve staggered appointments to reduce the number of patients in our waiting room at any one time. To prevent any type of crowding, we may call and ask that you wait in your car until your scheduled appointment time or until we give you a call back.
Our goal isn’t to inconvenience anyone, but to keep everyone as safe as possible.
Our Waiting Room
Once you arrive for an appointment, you’ll immediately notice some changes we’ve made to our waiting room. We’ve separated the seats in our waiting room to keep patients at least six feet apart. We will no offer longer magazines for our patients to read as these types of items are difficult to clean between uses. Access to communal items like coffee and water may also be limited. Plexiglass screen will now separate you from our front office staff.
Upon your arrival, you will have your temperature checked. You will also undergo another screening interview to make sure that nothing has changed since we last spoke to you. Once your hygienist is ready, you’ll be led to the back of our office.
We please ask that you wear a mask the entire time while in our office.
In the Dental Chair
Your experience in the dental chair won’t change that much from previous visits, but you will notice some important changes.
First, you’ll need to continue wearing your mask until instructed by the hygienist that you can remove it safely. Next, you’ll notice that your hygienist now wears a face shield, in addition to also wearing a facemask. Finally, we will take steps to ensure that airborne particles emitted from a patient’s mouth during a cleaning are limited. This will help to protect the health of everyone in our office.
We take the health of our patients and staff very seriously. Every member of our team will be screened and have their temperature taken prior to seeing patients. When combined with the protective equipment every member of our staff will wear, and the extensive screening we conduct on patients, we will create as safe an environment as possible.
Dental care during COVID may seem like a scary proposition, but know that our team at McKinney Smiles is taking every precaution to ensure the safety of all our patients. Now is not the time to skip receiving important medical care that works to protect your health. Keep your mouth and body healthy by scheduling your next appointment with your trusted family dental care provider in McKinney.