03/16/2020
Dear Families of Small to Tall Dentistry for Children,
Starting Monday, March 16, and continuing until further notice, we will be limiting care to emergency care only. If you have a scheduled appointment, we will be in touch with you to notify you of the cancellation. As always, if your child has a dental emergency, you will be able to reach a doctor by phone after hours as well.
This decision was not made lightly, but is necessary in order to protect our patients and staff after reading updated recommendations from the CDC and OSHA. Dental procedures generate a large number of droplets and aerosols and the latest advice is that our standard personal protective equipment is not effective enough to prevent the spread of COVID-19, especially when patients are in the incubation period and are unaware they are infected. This is especially unique to our profession as children are being found to be asymptomatic carriers. This means that screening is no longer considered effective in capturing all who may be infected with the virus. Working on a child that has the virus may result in the virus being airborne in our office for up to 3 hours, and we are not comfortable with the potential to spread this virus to our other patients and their families. There simply is not enough evidence to prove that even with strict infection control measures, continuing to provide dental treatment at this time is safe.
OSHA has placed dental professionals in the “very high exposure risk” category in regards to COVID-19. Current recommendations are that dentists wear N95 masks for dental treatment during this pandemic. However, not only are these masks extremely difficult to obtain at this time, but most importantly, they need to be conserved for other professions that are at the forefront of fighting this virus.
We are sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause, but it is imperative that as a community, we slow the spread of this virus, and that requires extreme measures. We are aiming to help by implementing this policy and remain committed to your child’s dental care as well as their safety.
Sincerely,
Small to Tall Dentistry for Children