Gentle Dentistry encourages their patients to return to their routinely scheduled dental appointments. While non-emergency health care visits were canceled at the start of the pandemic, many health care offices and dental clinics now have the proper information and PPE to allow them to get back to a more normal workflow. We’ve missed seeing our patients, and we know routine dental treatment is essential for both your smile and wellbeing.
While some people might still be hesitant to resume dental services, we want to stress just how important oral health really is. According to Dr. Richard Seidman, chief medical officer of L.A. Care Health Plan, the largest publicly operated health plan in the U.S., “Oral health is important to overall health, so it’s important to keep your dental appointments as well.” In a US News article about seeking healthcare safely, he says, “Studies have shown a link between gum disease and heart disease, and people with diabetes can develop gum disease if they don’t receive regular dental care.”
Now is the time for patients to reschedule any and all appointments that had been cancelled during the past few months. Including elective dental procedures. Both routine and elective dental care are often important factors in both preventing and diagnosing serious conditions.
How can you stay safe during your dental treatment?
Gentle Dentistry has put a number of new COVID-19 procedures into practice in order to help keep our patients safe. You can visit our welcome back page for more information.
In addition, we also want to share a few tips that you can follow as a patient, so stay as safe as possible:
- Wash your hands. Washing your hands as always been the number one method to prevent the spread of the virus. Be sure to wash your hands thoroughly (at least 20 seconds with warm water and soap) to remove any pathogens both before and after your appointment. If you don’t have access to soap and water, use hand sanitizer.
- Wear a mask. We require each patient to wear a mask in our office. Reusable masks made of cotton work well and be sure to wash them often.
- Maintain social distancing. Try to maintain 6-feet of distance between yourself and others. In order to encourage this, we have patients wait in their vehicles prior to their appointment time and ask them to notify our office by phone when when the arrive for treatment.
- Answer pre-screening questions truthfully. Prior to your dental care appointment, our staff will communicate with you to ask some screening questions. You’ll be asked those same questions again when you are in the office. The patient will also have their temperature taken.
Patient and staff safety is our number one priority, and now that we understand more about the virus and it’s transmission, we know what we can do to keep people safe when the come into the office for their dental services. For additional updates regarding our dental care services, please visit our patient update page.
All routine health appointments are important, including dental care. Please don’t hesitate to schedule/reschedule your dental appointments. Contact our nearest full service dental clinic to schedule your appointment now, and be sure to follow our new guidelines to ensure a safe and successful visit. Your teeth will thank you and we can’t wait to see your smile!
