With the country easing out of lockdown and some of the more severe restrictions around COVID-19 beginning to be relaxed, we’re delighted to let all of you know that our practice is once again open for business. We hope that this is the start of our journey towards being once again able to provide exemplary dental care to all of our patients in a much more conventional manner, face-to-face and doing what we do best.
Yet, for the time being, we will be implementing a number of strict safety measures in order to ensure that the risk of any of our patients or staff coming to harm during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is reduced as much as possible.
Although dental practices are commonly perceived to be one of the most sanitary environments you can come into contact with, we are still making every effort to ensure our practice is as safe as possible. Guided by government advice, we will be sticking closely to these precautionary measures for the foreseeable future. You can find a list of these below. Alternatively, please visit our Facebook page or our Instagram page to watch a short video which explains these changes in detail.
Safety measures
- Social distancing: We will be doing our bit to ensure that all unnecessary social contact is reduced. This means that you should only attend our practice if you have an appointment booked. Where possible, we would like to ask you to give reception a call to let us know that you have arrived. You may be asked to wait in the car until we are ready to see you. This is to make sure that we are sticking to our policy of a maximum of 2 patients in the waiting room at one time. When you enter the practice, you can keep your distance from others by following the markers on the floor. You should also attend your appointment alone, unless circumstances dictate otherwise (e.g. you are a parent/guardian or require a translator).
- Protective measures: At this time, we will be subjecting our practices to enhanced cleaning processes. This means that we will be spacing out appointments in order to carry out these protective measures effectively. After every appointment, the rooms will be completely decontaminated. We will also be conducting many treatments whilst wearing the highest level of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). This will ensure that both parties will be kept safe. But don’t worry, it’s still us underneath! We have also removed magazines/books from our waiting room and you will no longer have access to our drinking water dispenser. Our reception task has also been fitted with a perspex screen and our toilets will also be closed during this time.
- Reduced treatments: Government advice is currently to reduce aerosol-generating procedures where possible, so our hygienists will be offering hand scaling instead of that aided by ultrasonic water jet scalers. Polishing procedures will also be conducted in a different way, with stain removal assisted by the use of polishing strips. We’re also aware that the way that appointments are currently being spaced out means that we will not be able to see as many people throughout the day. To counter this backlog, we are opening some Sunday clinics to make sure that you will be seen in good time.
- Help from you: We realise that these safety measures will only be able to achieve success with compliance from all of our patients. With this in mind, we’d like to ask you to do a few important things to help us out. Firstly, when attending the practice, please bring with you as few belongings as possible so as to reduce the possibility of cross-infection. We would also appreciate it if you could use the alcohol hand gel at reception when you arrive. As the safety of all of our staff and patients is very important to us, one of our clinicians may ask to take your temperature upon your arrival, so please don’t be offended if this occurs.
- COVID-19 symptoms: Please do not attend the practice if you or anyone else in your household has symptoms of COVID-19. If this is the case, we would like to ask you to cancel your appointment by giving us a call as soon as you can. If you do choose to attend whilst displaying these symptoms, we reserve the right to refuse you treatment.
A Thank You From Us
We realise that the last few months have been difficult, challenging and frustrating for everyone, which is why we’d like to thank you for your incredible patience during this uncertain time. Over the next few, crucial months, we will do everything in our power to provide all of you with the dental care and support you need and we ask that you do your very best to help us to do so.
As always, we welcome any feedback and will be helpful to answer any questions you may have. We look forward to seeing you all very soon.
To book in for an appointment with us, call 01753 522 500 today. Alternatively, you can reach us by email at info@yewtreedental.co.uk.