Jun 5, 2020 | Blog, COVID-19, General Dentistry
Updated November 22, 2020
Following Dr. Bonnie Henry’s latest COVID-19 orders, masks are now mandatory in our clinic for all persons over age 2. They can be removed when treatment is being performed but must be worn throughout the clinic otherwise. Those with a medical condition that prevents them from wearing a mask will be required to wear a face shield. We will continue to update you as the situation evolves. Thank you for your patience with our extra COVID precautions.
In response to BC opening up dental offices in Phase 2 of the Reopening Plan, we are excited to announce that we are seeing patients again! Please bear with us as we enter this new phase and adapt to all of the new protocols we have put in place.
We have missed seeing your smiling faces so much! It is really hard to believe that we last saw patients in the middle of March. We truly hope that you all were safe and healthy through all of this and those that had dental emergencies, we will be seeing you first!
It has been really hard on me to not be able to treat your pain and discomfort. I became a dentist so that I could help people – I know that closing our office through this time has helped flatten the curve in BC and has been worth it in that respect, but it does sting to not be able to help our amazing patients when they need us. We really do love treating our patients!
New Protocols
So, in order to help our amazing patients and keep our patients and team as healthy as possible, we have instituted new protocols around the office:
- When you speak to our team members on the phone to schedule or confirm an appointment, they will be asking you screening questions to see if it is appropriate for us to see you for a dental appointment. This is a precaution we are taking to be able to protect our patients and team members.
- If you are sick, have been in contact with someone with suspected or diagnosed COVID-19 or have returned from outside of Canada in the last 14 days, please reschedule your dental appointment for 14 days from now.
- Please wear a mask to your appointment.
- We ask that you do not come more than 5 minutes early for your appointment as we are trying to minimize the number of people in the office at one time.
- Please come alone to your appointment – leave kids and spouses at home where possible. If you must bring a parent/caregiver due to your child’s age or the patient requiring assistance, please only bring one caregiver to minimize the number of people in the office at one time.
- When you enter the office, please wait at our screening station directly inside the door. A team member will offer you hand sanitizer and go through the screening questions with you again. They will then take your temperature. If nothing out of the ordinary comes up with this screening, you will be taken to your room. In the room, we will also be taking a reading of your oxygen saturation ( a simple finger test ). All of these screening measures are to ensure it is safe for us to treat you during this time.
- Any patient who is suspected of having COVID-19 will be rescheduled for 14 days. If they have a dental emergency, we will arrange to manage them over the phone or arrange for emergency treatment in a facility that is set up to manage COVID-19 patients.
- Prior to dental treatment, we will have you do a rinse with a hydrogen peroxide solution.
- Please maintain physical distancing of at least 2 meters (6 feet) while in the office.
- We have removed most of the chairs from our reception area to allow for proper physical distancing and placed decals on the floor as a reminder.
- We have installed a barrier in the reception area to protect our reception team.
- We have made the decision to go above and beyond the current government recommendations for personal protective equipment (PPE) in the dental field. We feel it is important to go the extra step during Phase 2 of reopening to keep both our team and our patients healthy. So you will notice that our team is wearing gowns and face shields during your appointment in addition to our usual masks and gloves. Please bear with us while we get used to wearing all of this for your treatment. We wear new gowns, masks and gloves for each patient and disinfect our face shields and eye wear between patients.
- We have always had a high standard for infection control and prevention in our office. All dental tools are heat-sterilized between patients and all treatment rooms are disinfected between patients. We will continue to follow our high level of this as well as increasing the frequency that we clean common areas such as door knobs, reception room chairs and reception counters.
- For the time being, we may be modifying how we do some of our procedures to limit the risk of transmission of COVID-19, so please bear with us when things are done a little differently than usual.
For patients with preexisting conditions that put them at higher risk, please inform us when we call to schedule an appointment. Common conditions that put you at higher risk for COVID-19 include:
- Over the age of 70
- Lung disease
- Heart disease
- Diabetes
- Immunocompromised or Immunosuppressed patients
Please, if you have any questions or concerns about our new protocols, please ask us. This is an unprecedented situation that we are all learning about as we go and following the recommendations of our Provincial Health Officer, WorkSafe BC, the BC Centre for Disease Control and the College of Dental Surgeons of BC. As the situation in BC changes and (hopefully) we continue to move forwards into Phase 3 and beyond, we will begin to relax some of our extra precautions back to a more normal level of infection control and prevention.
Rebooking Appointments
You missed your appointment with us…now what?
We are working our way through our list of patients who need appointments for dental treatment and for cleanings. Shirley is on the phone calling away to get ahold of everyone and get them scheduled. It will take us a bit of time to get everyone caught up but we will get there. I promise, we haven’t forgotten about you.
If you would like to be seen sooner or have a dental issue you think we should look at, please call the office at 250-762-2223 Monday to Wednesday 8:00-4:30 and Thursday 7:00-3:30. You can also email us at info@kelownafamilydental.ca.
As we all know, this is a very fluid situation that has the potential to change daily. We are monitoring the recommendations for our field and will adjust our protocols as needed accordingly.
Thank you everyone for your understanding during our closure these last few months. We know it has been a hard time for most people with closures of services, concerns about the health and wellbeing of family and friends and loss of work for many. We truly appreciate your support and confidence in our dental practice and are looking forward to seeing you all.
Sincerely,
Dr. Robyn Moreau, Dr. Tom Martin and the whole team at Kelowna Family Dental
May 15, 2020 | Blog, COVID-19, General Dentistry
May 24, 2020
As the Province of BC has lifted the shutdown on non-essential dental services, we are busy preparing our plan to reopen our dental office safely. Our primary concern is the health and safety of our patients and team. Please bear with us while we source the extra PPE we are implementing to keep everyone safe. We will update you once we have a set opening date. Right now, we are subject to shipping times.
May 14, 2020
We continue to patiently wait for an update on when we can reopen from the Provincial Health Officer, WorkSafeBC and the College of Dental Surgeons of BC.
Please see the following press release from the British Columbia Dental Association:
Dental Offices Not Open for Full Services May 19
May 14, 2020, 12:00pm: The BC Dental Association (BCDA) advises patients that dental offices will not be returning to regular practice May 19. Full dental services, including hygiene care, will be introduced gradually and when it is safe to do so. As evidenced in other provinces, there is no singular approach to restarting services. Plans for BC will consider the different circumstances in various areas, including access to required personal protective equipment (PPE).
When Premier John Horgan announced the provincial government’s BC Restart Plan on May 6, many patients assumed dental offices would be returning to regular services on May 19. However, as the Premier and Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, confirmed in media briefings May 13, WorkSafeBC and public health officials have begun to develop guidelines for various sectors, including dentistry, to extend services – but they have not been published yet.
As we can all appreciate, the guidelines to protect patients, dentists and dental staff need to be aligned based on the epidemiology of managing the risk of COVID-19 in BC.
On May 13, Dr. Henry indicated that new guidelines are currently being worked on with regulators, including the College of Dental Surgeons of BC, “Direction is going to be provided, and we’re working on that with the regulatory authorities, the colleges for all the regulated health professions, on incremental changes and the guidance they need to move forward over the next couple of weeks.”
“Dental teams are experts at infection control and dentists want to ensure their practices are appropriately set up to comply with physical distancing and other particular requirements to reduce the transmission of COVID-19”, says BCDA spokesperson, Dr. Alastair Nicoll.
Dr. Nicoll continued, “Dental offices have been limited to tele-dentistry and emergency care since March 23. When the public health orders change, and patients begin returning to dental offices, the dental visit will look different. For example, chairs, magazines and toys will be removed from waiting rooms, and the receptionist may be sitting behind a plexiglass screen. Patients will also be asked different health screening questions when making their appointment and on the day of their appointment; and asked to clean their hands before and after their appointment. These and other changes will be communicated by your dental office once the new guidelines are published.”
“By all means, dental patients should contact their dentist to schedule an appointment, but please understand that until further direction is provided by the Provincial Health Officer and the College of Dental Surgeons of BC, dentists are only permitted to provide emergency and urgent services.”, said Dr. Nicoll.
BCDA encourages patients to contact their dentist for any dental emergency or dental concern. If you’re looking for a dentist, visit BCDA’s YourDentalHealth.ca website.
Cary Chan, Manager, Communications & Public Affairs
BCDA
May 3, 2020
Hi Everyone,
We miss you!
It has now been a month and a half since we closed our office for routine dental care due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that this finds you all healthy and hopefully finding a few moments of peace and joy during this unprecedented time. I know that I am trying to make the most of it by enjoying some sunshine in my yard and tackling some projects around our house.
I thought I would touch base with you all regarding where we go from here. I am not sure if you are aware that Premier Horgan announced last week that dentistry will be one of the first sectors to open back up. We are anxiously awaiting more guidance from the provincial health authority and our dental college as to what extra precautions we will be putting in place to protect both our lovely patients and our amazing team. Our biggest concern is how to keep both our patients and our team healthy and safe during this all. As soon as we know more, we will be getting ready to welcome you back to our office. I know that many of you have dental concerns that need to be taken care of very soon before they become problematic.
As always, if you do have a dental emergency or just need some advice on how to proceed until you can be seen, please do not hesitate to call the office. My cell phone number is on the voicemail message so that you can reach me.
Dr. Robyn Moreau
March 18, 2020
We are sure that you have heard in the media that there was a confirmed case of COVID-19 at the Pacific Dental Conference that was recently held in Vancouver on March 5-7th. We wanted to reach out to you to keep you informed of up to date information that has been given to us by our governing bodies and the Provincial Health Team.
While our dentists were present at the Pacific Dental Conference and did return to work the following week (March 09th), we did so as it had not been announced that there was a possible case. We were informed by the Pacific Dental Conference on March 12th of the confirmed case and they advised us to monitor for symptoms but take no other measures. As our team was feeling healthy, we continued as usual treating our patients. As of yesterday afternoon, the province, the College of Dental Surgeons of BC and BC Health Services has instructed us to cease treating non-emergent patients, which we have done in closing our office.
Please take comfort in knowing that none of our team has any symptoms and has been back in Kelowna since March 8th. In all steps of this unprecedented situation we have followed all recommendations from our Dental College, and the Provincial Health Services. The risks of exposure to our dentists at the Conference are still considered low and the recommendation to self-isolate is a precaution we are taking seriously.
As a Dental Office, on a daily basis we go above and beyond in exercising the highest levels of cleanliness and sterilization. We are proud to have always adopted the highest standards in our practice and practice them daily.
If you have any concerns or are unsure about symptoms, please contact the provincial health link at 811 or 1-888-COVID19 or complete the online assessment. We will continue to follow the recommendations of the BC Provincial Health and the College of Dental Surgeons of BC.
The College of Dental Surgeons of BC has advised us to cancel all elective and non-essential dental services immediately until further notice. We have closed the office as of last night and Dr. Moreau and Dr. Martin are self-isolating until Sunday, March 22nd as recommended. After March 22nd, Dr. Moreau will be handling patients who require immediate treatment due to infection, acute pain and/or trauma. Please call the office if you are having a dental emergency to receive the emergency number.
Thank you for reaching out with your questions, we will be in contact with any updates that we may have.
We hope that everyone stays healthy out there and that our society can return to normal as soon as possible once this pandemic has passed.
Dr. Robyn Moreau, Dr. Tom Martin and the team at Kelowna Family Dental
