COVID-19 Updates

 

To our dear patients, 


We miss you all tremendously. Thank you for your care and patience as we have been temporarily closed in compliance with the CDC’s and the Governor’s directives during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.  We are very much looking forward to returning to our general dental care within the next week in the safest possible way for both patients and staff.  

We understand that many of you are concerned about not having been seen in our office for some time. We completely empathize with this concern and so we will be working very hard to catch up on rescheduling everyone who has missed their appointments due to our closing. We are committed to getting everyone back on track, but especially those who have more emergent dental concerns.

We have made some significant changes to our office look, but especially to our protocols and scheduling. These steps are particularly important to significantly minimize the risks to all staff and patients in our office: 


  1. We will now be offering dental services from Monday-Thursday 8:30am - 5pm, Friday 8:30am-4pm, and 2 Saturdays a month from 8am-1:30pm. These new hours will include longer appointment times to allow for proper social distancing, screening procedures and thorough disinfection between patients.

  2. All patients will be called within 24 hrs of their appointment and asked a series of wellness questions. These questions will be repeated upon your arrival during your pre-appointment screening

  3. We ask that you arrive 10 minutes prior to your appointment time and call the office when you arrive at 908-284-5050.  

  4. Our reception area will be limited to patient screenings only and we will ask that patients wait in their car until their treatment chair is ready.

  5. Only the patient receiving treatment is permitted in the office. We will make exceptions for our younger patients or those who need special assistance. In that case, one adult may accompany the patient. This person will also be subject to the same precautions upon entering the office. Please no siblings or other guests. 

  6. All people entering our office MUST be wearing a mask.

  7. All people entering our office will be required to fill out the screening wellness questionnaire and consent to the screening protocol.

  8. The screening protocol involves that all people entering our office will have their temperature taken with a no-touch forehead thermometer, have their oxygen saturation level measured and will be provided with hand sanitizer to use. 

  9. We will also be taking blood pressures of patients during this time prior to their treatment.

  10.  We will have a garbage bin available  to throw away your gloves as no outside gloves will be allowed in the clinic area due to cross contamination.

  11. We have invested in multiple air purifiers throughout the office, but also special purification equipment in the clinic areas to reduce possible transmission from aerosol procedures.

  12. In addition to our already rigorous sterilization and disinfection program that has always exceeded the CDC and OSHA guidelines, we will be frequently disinfecting high touch areas throughout the day.  

  13. Our instrument sterilization process will continue to be monitored by an outside company to assure your safety. 

  14. Our staff has undergone extra training and will have extra personal protective equipment to safely work in our new environment. 

  15. Our entire staff will also undergo daily temperature, oxygen saturation checks and screening questions to monitor our own health.

 

We appreciate your patience as we work to bring everyone back to their optimal dental health. We look forward to seeing you again very soon.

Stay healthy and safe!

Drs. Nolido and Montalban and the entire Staff of Miles of Smiles