Patient Information

COVID-19 Updates

COVID-19 PRACTICE GUIDELINES UPDATE (MAY 11, 2020)

REOPENING

As many of you know, Community Smiles has been open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, providing emergency care to our patients. On Monday, May 11, our practice will start seeing patients for non-emergency care, including cleanings. We also still invite new patients to contact us if they are in need of care.

At Community Smiles, we have always followed infection control issued by the CDC, ADA®, and OSHA to help protect every one of our patients and team members from the many infectious diseases that we are potentially exposed to on a daily basis. During the pandemic, we have implemented additional safety precautions according to national, state, and local guidelines to help protect our patients and staff. We will continue these practices for the foreseeable future.

Masks at Community Smiles:

Community Smiles encourages all our patients to wear masks in public, even if you feel well. Wearing masks at your in-person visit is required and ALL family members must wear a mask. We have cloth masks available for purchase if needed.

Before Your Appointment:

• Pre-screen by phone before scheduled appointments. The current protocol is to screen patients by questions regarding symptoms, contact, and exposure of COVID-19.

When you arrive at our office, please wait in your car. For the safety of you and others, we are limiting patients in the waiting area. Please let us know you have arrived by responding to the text we send you, and we will respond when your chair is ready.

In the Office:

• We will be scheduling appointments in a way that promotes social distancing and allows adequate time for us to disinfect all areas of use in between patients.
• If you do happen to be in the waiting room with someone, please practice social distancing.
• Masks are REQUIRED.
• We ask our patients to come to their appointment ALONE if at all possible. For those patients who need assistance or a guardian to accompany them, we ask that this be limited to one person.
• All staff will be wearing recommended personal protective equipment (PPE) including scrubs, masks, and gowns for the duration of your visit.

Thank you to our patients as we move forward into the “new normal.” Please know we value your trust and loyalty and look forward to welcoming you back to Community Smiles.

COVID-19: A MESSAGE TO OUR PATIENTS AND FAMILIES (APRIL 2, 2020)

In recognition of ongoing news reports and the continued spread of the COVID-19 virus, we realize our patients have questions. As dedicated health care professionals, we want you to know that we remain diligent in protecting the health and safety of our patients and staff. Our practice has reinforced our already comprehensive Infection Control procedures with our team members, which includes wearing personal protective gear, using hospital-grade disinfectants, and practicing the latest sterilization protocols.

We are also taking the following additional steps:

• Increasing the frequency of thorough cleaning and disinfecting of all areas of the office
• Instructing team members to stay home if they’ve traveled to high risk areas or if they have any COVID-19 related symptoms
• Removing communal items that may be touched by multiple people throughout the day such as our magazines and brochures

For emergency treatment please email or call our office, or you can call our emergency line at (919) 913-9075.

Every effort we have in place is to ensure the safety of our patients and staff. We want you to know that we are monitoring this situation very closely, and we will keep you updated as the situation develops.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we all try to navigate through this challenging situation. Stay healthy and safe.