COVID-19 Protocol

We Are Committed to Your Health & Safety

We have always been very careful making infection control and patient safety a top priority for you, our patients, and our dental care team. To further protect you and your family, we have put into place new coronavirus (COVID-19) protocol and infection control measures recommended by the American Dental Association (ADA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). We do this to provide a safe and secure environment and experience for you and your family members.

Changes You’ll Notice on Your Next Visit

When you come in for your next visit, your dental experience will include new health safeguard measures. Some of these changes include:

• We will communicate with you before your appointment to ask some health screening questions related to COVID-19. You’ll be asked those same questions again when you come for your appointment to assure there have been no changes in your health.
• When you arrive for your appointment, please call the office (505-278-8806) to let us know you are here. We will then have someone come out to your car and take you and your child’s temperature prior to entering the office.
• We do ask that you and your child wear a mask into our office for the visit. If you do not have one, a cloth one will be provided for you to wear during the appointment and laundered when you leave the office.
• We have hand sanitizer in our office and we will ask you to use it when you come in for your appointment and when you leave. You will also find sanitizer in the reception area and other places in the office for you to use as needed.
• In our reception room you will no longer find magazines or children’s toys or games since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect.
• Appointments will be scheduled and managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you’re offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment.
• We will only allow one legal guardian or adult to come to the appointment with their child.
• We will do our best to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting times for you, as well as to reduce the number of patients in the office.

Health Screening Before & During Your Visit

As mentioned, prior to your appointment we will visit with you by phone or via text to confirm your appointment and to ask you some health questions related to COVID-19. When you actually come in for your appointment, we will ask the same health questions again to assure nothing has changed since our phone visit. This is a copy of the screening questions from the American Dental Association that we will be using.

Your Health & Comfort Are Our Primary Concerns

As all of us have experienced lately, changes of any kind to our routines or our expectations can be uncomfortable. This is why we want to share some of the changes you will experience when you come in for your next appointment. Please know that our hope is to make your visits comfortable, that you feel the appreciation and concern we have for your health and well-being, and that you feel safe and confident.

We will also be screening our doctors and team daily to ensure that all of our team members are healthy at the office. Our staff will be wearing higher grade surgical masks or respirators during appointments, in addition to face shields for you and their safety. In addition, our treatment is being phased for the safety of our patients. We are prioritizing urgent and emergent cases first and foremost, but will continue to schedule as time progresses. We have invested heavily in protective equipment such as HEPA filter machines that kill contaminants such as viruses, bacteria, and odors in the air. We also will have extraoral suction units, Aegis Aerosol VacStations, that will be used during procedures such as: fillings, extractions, crowns, etc.

If you have any questions at all, please just call us at 505-278-8806 and we’ll answer or explain anything that may concern you.

If you have any questions when you are in our office, please ask us! We love helping all our patients understand their dental health, and how we work to provide you with the best care and the safest environment possible with this COVID-19 protocol.

Thank you for trusting us with your dental health. Please know how much we value you and your children as patients. We look forward to welcoming you back!

Sincerely,

Dr. Cody Coleman, Dr. Michael Tobler and the Beckland Dental Team