05/21/2020
Clinic Reopening Monday May 25th, 2020
Dear valued patients of Ladysmith Dental,
We hope this letter finds you and your family in good health. Our community has been through a lot over the last few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We appreciate your understanding during our mandated clinic closure for the last 10 weeks and while many things have changed, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to your safety.
Infection control has always been a top priority in our practice, ensuring your comfort and safety while we provide your dental treatment. Our office follows infection control recommendations made by the B.C. Centres for Disease Control, the B.C. College of Dental Surgeons (CDSBC) and WorkSafe BC. We follow the advice of these agencies so that we are up-to-date on any new rulings or guidance that may be issued.
Recommended measures to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus will be implemented at our office to further protect our patients and team. You will notice some of these changes at your next appointment, such as:
- Our office will communicate with you the day before your appointment to ask some COVID-19 screening questions. You will be asked those same questions again when you are in the office.
- Our office doors will be locked throughout the work day to reduce patient volume in the reception area so please call the office at 250-245-8515 to gain entry or if you’d like to discuss any scheduling needs. Contact details and information for our clinic will be posted on our front door.
- We have hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use when you enter and exit the office. There will be multiple hand sanitizer stations setup throughout the office for you to use as needed.
- We ask patients to avoid having a companion sitting in the waiting room if possible.
- Our waiting room will no longer offer magazines or children’s toys since those items are difficult to disinfect. Furnishings have been chosen that can be readily wiped and disinfected. There will also be increased space between waiting room seats to ensure adequate social distancing.
- You will notice frequent cleaning and disinfection of the high touch areas in the office.
- Multiple air purifiers will be strategically located throughout the office to help filter and turnover the air.
- You may notice us wearing additional personal protective gear depending on the dental procedure that you require.
- During our Phase II reopening, appointments will be reserved to treat our patients’ urgent and emergent needs. Greater time will be allocated between patients to reduce the number of patients in the reception area at one time and provide the clinical team with additional time to more thoroughly disinfect the treatment rooms.
We look forward to seeing you again and we are happy to answer any questions you may have about the steps we have taken to keep you, and every patient, safe in our practice.
Our office will be reopening on Monday May 25th under Phase 2 of the BC government Restart Plan. Please contact our office via email or phone at (250) 245-8515 with any urgent dental needs. At this point, we will not be rebooking cancelled hygiene and restorative appointments from our mandated closure unless they are urgent in nature. We will reach out to patients for rebooking cancelled appointments once we are provided guidance to resume non-urgent dental care by the Provincial Health Officer and the BC College of Dental Surgeons.
Thank you for being our patient. We value your trust and loyalty and look forward to welcoming you back to our office.
Sincerely,
Dr. Matthew McMillan and the team at Ladysmith Dental
