COVID-19 Updates

We hope this letter finds you and your family in good health. Our community has been through a lot over the last few months, and all of us are looking forward to resuming our normal habits and routines. While many things have changed, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to your safety.

Infection control has always been a top priority for our practice and you may have seen this during your visits to our office. Our infection control processes are made so that when you receive care, it’s both safe and comfortable. We want to tell you about the infection control procedures we follow in our practice to keep patients and staff safe.

Our office follows infection control recommendations made 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 follow the activities of these agencies so that we are up-to-date on any new rulings or guidance that may be issued. We do this to make sure that our infection control procedures are current and adhere to each agencies’ recommendations.  We have also implemented additional levels of protection and equipment that will make our office even safer to visit, including air filtration systems, aerosol reduction components, and laser dentistry.

You may see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to help protect our patients and staff. For example:

• Our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. You’ll be asked those same questions again when you are in the office.
• Upon arrival at the office, you will be instructed to call us and we will bring you in when your dental operatory is ready. The waiting room will be closed until further notice.
• When you enter the office, you will be given hand sanitizer, mouthrinse, and your temperature will be taken with a no-touch thermometer.
• Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you’re offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment.
• 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 reception area at any one time.
• Only the patient being seen will be allowed into the office. Patients under the age of 18 can be accompanied by an adult.

We look forward to seeing you again and are happy to answer any questions you may have about the steps we take to keep you, and every patient, safe in our practice. To make an appointment, please call our office at 203-699-9705 or visit our website at mycheshiredentist.com. Thank you for being our patient. We value your trust and loyalty and look forward to welcoming back our patients, neighbors, and friends.

Sincerely,

Dr. Renee Kurtz and Amazing Team

As we begin to re-open our practice, we want to make sure we are providing the safest environment for ourselves as well as our patients.  Not only are we following infection control recommendations made by the American Dental Association, the CDC, and OSHA, we have also added a few more layers of protection to ensure the highest level of safety during all dental procedures performed.

Solea Laser

Our office has been using the Solea laser now for over a year.  Its many benefits include fixing cavities with no novocaine, and performing soft tissue procedures with impeccable results, also done without novocaine.  In this new post COVID-19 era, Solea make dental procedures much safer as well.  Solea use has a significant reduction in aerosols over the drill, and also decontaminates the tissue it is cutting.  By decreasing the aerosol created and eliminating any germs flying through that aerosol makes for a much safer dental environment.

• Significant Reduction in Aerosols – Less Water and Air Pressure vs Drills
  • 67-83% less water flow
  • 74% less air pressure
  • Reducing water flow and air pressure significantly decreases the amount of water spray during the procedure

• Kills Viruses – Decontamination During Hard and Soft Tissue Cutting
  • Bacteria and viruses are destroyed at 60^oC
  • Drills increase surface (tooth, saliva, blood) temperatures by only 11^oC
  • Solea increases the surface temperature to 1,200^oC
  • At 400,000 RPM, drills project material from the oral cavity 18 inches or more
  • Patient studies demonstrate bacteria destruction with Solea during soft tissue surgeries

Surgically Clean Air

Our office is placing air filtration systems in each operatory as well as in the reception area.  This technology works to clean, purify and re-energize indoor air.  Its exclusive six stages of technology not only filter the air – but it also sterilizes it. It diminishes everything that is in the air: bio-aerosols, odors, gasses, disinfectants, particulates, molds, viruses, bacteria, and fungus.

DryShield

DryShield is a modern isolation mouthpiece that provides a continuous suction to help reduce and control aerosols, which keeps risk down to the lowest possible levels.  These have been proven to prevent any aerosol spray from the mouth by over 95%.  We will be using these on our patients to ensure the safest environment during procedures.

CEREC same-day crown technology

CEREC stands for Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics.  We have had this technology for over ten years now.  Why is it more important now?  Having the ability to do same-day dentistry limits your amount of exposure.  When you have a crown done at our office, you leave that day with the final restoration!  No need to make a follow-up appointment, no temporary crown, no impressions taken.  Without this, impressions are taken and sent to a lab where the crown is made at that facility.  It is later mailed or brought back to the office via a carrier.  By using CEREC, we eliminate any contamination that can happen at any of these step when using a lab.

If you would like more information on our Re-opening plans or about any of our office products and equipment please feel free to reach out to us. We look forward to safely treating you again and maintaining your oral health!