Covid-19 Infection Control and Safety During Your Dental Visit

In our last Bite Size Pediatric Dentistry blog post, we discussed how Covid-19 is effecting dental patients and offices. As we know, Covid-19 is transmitted via respiratory droplets and touching contaminated droplets-transferring them to your eyes, nose, mouth. As pediatric dentists, we are learning how we can improve our infection control protocols and our facility!

Infection control has always been a top priority to Bite Size Pediatric Dentistry. Ensuring our patients, and our own safety, against bacteria, viruses, germs, etc. is something we hold to the utmost importance.

Here are the steps we take on a daily basis to provide a clean and safe environment:

• Frequent washing of our hands
• Use of a clean mask during patient care
• Use of eye protection (for both staff and patient) during patient care
• Clean attire
• Frequent disinfection of high traffic areas
• Medical Grade disinfection after use of all our equipment: dental chair, dental light, dental handpieces
• Use of plastic bags/tape to cover areas that are touched during a procedure
• Replacement of clean bags/tape for each patient/family
• One time use of disposable dental materials (polishing brush, suction straw, etc.)
• Sterilized instruments for each patient/procedure
• Maintenance of all of our sterilization equipment to ensure efficiency
• Use of a rubber dam/high evacuation unit to minimize aerosols by up to 90%

In light of Covid, we intend to continue to follow these protocols and much more. We have added measures that we feel will provide a safer environment for our staff and patients.

We have added:

• Extraoral suction units to help capture aerosols while we work
• Additional barrier tape/plastic to areas of highly touched surfaces
• Plexi-glass shields at our reception counters
• Increased our personal protective equipment (masks, gloves, gowns, caps & face shields)
• Medical grade HEPA filters to filter out 99.97% of all air particles, especially those containing bacteria, viruses, harmful pathogens.
• UVC light and ionizer to our HVAC system to destroy 99% of harmful pathogens that pass through.
• Commercial grade electrostatic disinfectant sprayer to destroy 99.9% of all pathogens on surfaces.

We are also adding social distancing measures within our office, currently we:

• Request that parent and patient wait in their car until appointment time is ready
• Have created a hygiene station where parents and patients will be asked to sanitize their hands prior to entering our facility
• Require parent and patient (over 2 years old) to wear a mask when present in our facility
• Record temperature of patient and parent prior to entering the facility
• Have limited the number of patients in our office
• Record the temperature of all staff members twice daily
• Have continued to create a paperless office environment
• Have modified how patient will receive a toy at the end of their visit
• Have removed the iPADs from our waiting room

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we continue to follow guidelines from the Illinois Department of Public Health, the American Dental Association, the Illinois State Dental Society, and the Center of Disease Control.

Our doctors and staff are eager to serve our patient’s dental needs. Guidelines put forth are always changing and we are working hard to keep up-to-date. We are finalizing strategies for re-opening, acquiring personal protective equipment (i.e. masks, gloves, etc.) and awaiting guidance from the governing boards mentioned above. We hope to be able to share that information with you soon!

Bite Size Pediatric Dentistry continues to remain open for emergency and urgent dental care, and routine care starting May 18th, 2020. To learn more about Covid-19 and Bite Size Pediatric Dentistry, please view our video.