Below you will find a Facebook Live video we did back in march talking about how we are working to serve your children’s dental emergency needs. Things have forever changed in the face of the pandemic and our office has become stronger for it. We have new sanitation practices in place and new air filtration as well. But take a listen about how this all started below.
Hello Facebook friends and family. Thank you so much for joining us. We’re going to talk about the Coronavirus. Yes, we are, it would be a little weird if I started talking about other thing, believe it or not. We’ve had a lot of calls to the office about what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, if we’re open, what the government says, what our governing bodies are going to say. And so tonight, we’re going to just talk about some of that stuff so we can make sure that everybody is well informed about what to do if your child is having a problem.
I just want to take about 10 or 15 minutes to kind of explain to you what’s going on with the dental communities, the pediatric dental community, a couple of weeks ago, they came. Couple of weeks ago, um, last Monday to be exact, you know, we have to do all this. We’ve had to make some hard tough decisions for all dental offices, the American Dental Association along with the American Academy of pediatric dentistry, the American Academy of oral surgeons, the American Academy of orthodontist, the American Academy of periodontist, we’ve all had to kind of step back and figure out what we needed to do. We must take in mind that we have to make sure that our patients are doing well because after all, we are a medical facility. We must also make sure that we’re being safe. Those are the two top priorities of our Office of anyone’s office. Every dentist I know has been affected by this. Just because we want to do what’s right.
Our governing bodies along with the North Carolina dental board, has recommended that we only do emergency treatment. That means that if your child has pain, swelling, if they’ve been involved in trauma or if they have an infection that we can treat them. We can at least get them out of the woods, or we can triage them, which simply means we want to make sure that they get to the right place. This is not the best place to be. Then we want to make sure that we can get them out of pain. We were advised to be closed for about two to three weeks. We know that, that’s enough time for us to kind of get those patients in and get them out of pain. Get them some information about what may be going on. Then we’re going to make sure that they get to the right places. Our decision to provide care is strictly based on the need of the patient. This is not because we’re not going to do any cavities because cavities are not an emergency, but it has to do with making sure that any pain or swelling, any trauma and infection, is being treated and has been dealt with. This is important because if your child or have someone’s child who has pain, swelling, they’ve been involved in trauma or they have infection.
We don’t want these kids to go to the ER or to urgent care. You can imagine that during this time, those places are absolutely slammed. Jammed packed with people who may really need attention. Then we know that those kids that go to those places, they aren’t normally able to be treated by the ER or by the urgent care. And it just happens to be that we’re the tooth doctors. We’ve made the decision at our office, that if you have a child or if you know of a child who has pain, swelling or trauma or infection, we will reduce our fee, we’ll only charge you $100. We will make sure that with an exam and an X ray, that we can determine how to get your child comfortable until the dental field is back open till dental offices are open. We want to make sure that we’re doing what we pledged to do in the beginning, which is to take care of our parents. I talk to many, many parents who’ve had a child that stays up all night, or that you have you can’t sleep or is swollen, it’s very scary.
We want to do our part. And if you simply visit our website and you can contact us through there, you can call our office, we have a 24-Hour Emergency line that is always available. Me or someone who I’ve designated will always answer that. Leave a message, but we’ll always get back to you. If your child has any kind of emergency. We want to make sure that they are seen, we want to make sure that they do not go to the emergency room, do not go to the urgent care. We want to make sure that those doctors can concentrate on what we really need right now.
The other question that a lot of parents have, is that they want to make sure that coming to a dental office is safe during this time. Again, that is the decision that is the desire of every dentist in this time. Remember that dentist we already practice what we call universal precautions. That means that we don’t touch anyone. Unless we’re wearing gloves and we’re wearing a mask. That means that we must wear scrubs. Your dentist has control standards that make sure that we must wipe down surfaces, any surfaces that your child touches. We must make sure that we wipe those surfaces down where they sit, where their head is on, if they touch anything, anything that touches their mouth. We have a special way of disposing of any bodily fluids like saliva, like blood, every dentist must do that. That’s a part of what we’re mandated to do by every governing body that is there. We already have those controls in place. Now, how are we stepping that up to make sure that no one is infected with the coronavirus, which, as you probably know by now is a respiratory illness or some respiratory environment virus that is transmitted by air. The way that we do that we have an improved screening process before you can even come to the office and if your primary care provider has already probably introduced you to the new screening system. Now we have anyone who’s traveled, we’re going to ask that you don’t come to the office. Anyone who has been exposed or probably been exposed. We want to make sure that they don’t come to the office. You then, of course, if you have a flu or fever, or if you’ve been traveling and round a lot of people, we don’t want you to come to the office. That’s going to be part of our screening process going forward. The other thing is that we’ve expanded our surface disinfection. There are certain areas where the kids would play, and we would only disinfect that like maybe once a day now we disinfect those areas every hour. That’s a part of what we’re doing to make sure that everything stays safe and that we are killing that virus. We want to make sure that you’re safe. All the chairs where anyone sits, they are disinfected, hourly, if you get up and you leave. To reduce number of patients, we will never have more than 15-20 people in the office at a time. And because we’re medical facility, we want to make sure that we have even less than 10, which is the President’s recommendation in the office at one time. The other thing that we’re doing is that we’re reducing the number we have limited staff that come.
Again, we’re doing that to make sure that we can care for you in a safe way where you feel it’s comfortable. The other thing that a lot of dentists are doing, if you have an emergency and you need to be treated, you’re welcome to come to the office. You’re welcome to stay in your car until we’re ready to see your child. You bring your child in and then your child comes right back out. There are a lot of things that we’re doing to make sure that your child is safe. These are also some questions that you may want to ask your dentist, which I’m sure that that they’re there if you have a problem or if you have pain that they’re willing to at least talk with you and make sure that you’re taking care of that’s what we were sworn to do. And even though we’re not allowed to see any elective care, and many Dentists have elected to close totally, I know that your dentist really cares if you have a problem. If your child has a problem, you should always give us a call. We want to make sure that we’re taking care of you.
So remember, for this time period, if you’re a new patient and you do not have anywhere to go, if your child is having pain, swelling, if they’ve been in a traumatic event or if they have infection, we want to make sure that they get seen and so $400 which is a reduced fee, we will make sure that we examine them and get an X ray, and get them to the proper person and get them out of pain. That’s going to be the biggest thing.
Now, all that’s out of the way. If you have any questions, remember, I’m here to answer them for you. And we’re going to have a coloring contest. I know that everybody’s homeschooling. Now, I know that’s a hard thing. I can’t imagine what moms are going through. But we’re going to have a coloring contest. Yesterday on our website, we sent out some coloring pages from a DA and we want your child to color those pictures and to take a picture and send it back in and then we’re going to give away a $50 coupon to Uber Eats, are one of those we’re going to make sure that your family is taken care of. We want to support our local restaurants. You know, they’re going through something too. And so, we’re going to give away an Uber Eats or door dash gift certificate because we want to help you and keep the kids entertained during this time. So, look out for that coloring contest. Look out for the rules. That’s going to be any day now. We’re going to start next week. So, we wish you the absolute best. If you have any questions, if you have any concerns, please don’t hesitate to give us a call our number 24 hours is available. We want you guys to stay safe. Thank you for joining me and pass on the word. Take care of guys.
Y’all have a good one.