Staying Safe at the Dentist — Things You Can Do

With COVID, patients, dentists and all office staff members have become more concerned than ever about health and safety. While our team has put safety first from the day we opened our practice, we can now see that our new safety procedures, driven by the pandemic, are positive developments for patients and staff for the long-term. The issue of safety is so important in light of COVID, we are running a six-part blog series about how dentists keep patients safe at the office. The fifth installment that follows below focuses on something extremely important to us — you! As patients and family members, there are several ways you can help combat the spread of COVID and other pathogens.

How Patients Can Help Us Help Maintain a Safe Environment

Here is a checklist of five simple things you can do to take an active and effective role in our battle against COVID. For most of you, this will probably be just a reminder.

1. Reschedule your appointment if you have symptoms. We are doing everything we can to keep our scheduling flexible and keep inconveniences and delays to a minimum.
2. Please give complete and honest answers during our screening process. If you’re not sure what the correct answer is, it’s O.K. to tell us that.
3. Don’t arrive too early for your appointment. Being right on time helps us maintain proper distancing.
4. For adult patients, come alone or with only one other person if possible. This also helps reduce the number of people in the office. Having said this, we understand that in some situations having someone with you is important or even a requirement, so don’t do anything that makes you uncomfortable.
5. Be proactive with your dental health! The last thing we (or you) want is to delay making an appointment and have a small issue turn into a big problem.

We’re happy to report several months into implementation that almost all of our patients have been doing these things all along, and we can’t thank you enough for your support, cooperation and understanding.

It’s very important for you to feel confident in visiting the dentist, because regular exams and required treatment not only protect the health of your teeth and gums, a thorough dental exam can also help identify warning signs and reduce the risk of serious conditions including oral cancers and heart disease.

If you have questions or concerns about health and safety at McLean DDS, please contact us. We are eager to provide whatever information you need.