COVID-19 Update

There are currently no mandatory facial covering or other requirements for visiting our practice. We ask our patients to notify us and postpone their non-urgent dental care in case of any acute respiratory ailments.

9/1/2021

Hope everyone is keeping it together. With all the turbulent news out in the world, it is hard to decipher facts from fiction. Regardless of what you believe in, we wish you good luck and health.

We continue to offer dental services to all of our patients. We are asking patients, as usual, to reschedule their appointments if they feel ill or under the weather. We continue to do forehead temperature checks as well as the rigorous cleaning and disinfecting regimen that we’ve been following for years.

We are offering an easy way for you to communicate with us in the event of a positive COVID test result so that we can take the necessary steps and measures on our end.

Once again stay healthy and strong.

2/26/2021

Hello to you all. As the world turns, trends are changing in regards to the virus that has impacted our lives for almost a year. 2019 seems like so long ago. Hanging out with friends and family, going to a movie or a game, dropping off the kids at school and so much more are all the things that we’ve been missing since. However, things are beginning to look better.

The number of Covid infections is decreasing. There are a number of items that have helped us in turning the corner. And as things keep improving, hopefully, we’ll get back to our 2019 lifestyle (or something resembling it) sometime later this year.

In the meantime, we continue our normal and emergency dental services. Prevention and early repair of dental disease have even become more important since any form of disease poses a challenge to the immune system.

Our patients have inquired whether we will be offering the Covid vaccine anytime soon. At the moment, we are not offering this service. There are a number of local facilities that can provide this particular service to our patients.

If you have been delaying your dental appointment, feel safe in knowing that we are adhering to the CDC recommendations for dental care for everyone’s safety.

Be safe. Stay healthy and we look forward to seeing you soon.

12/28/2020

Hello everybody. Hope you and your family are doing well. We wanted to provide you with an update considering the extended stay-at-home orders for California residents.

The CDC has not made any major changes or updates for the medical and dental profession. In fact, they no longer recommend postponing non-urgent care, meaning there is literally no risk of receiving dental care.

We continue to screen patients for symptoms such as cough, fever, etc. We do routine temperature checks for all of our patients. We ask all of our patients to wear a facial mask until their treatment is about to start. We have multiple locations throughout the office with hand sanitizing gels. When a patient is seen in a treatment room, that room is not utilized for the next scheduled patient. Even though not necessary, this provides an extra layer of protection in our infection control protocols.

With the introduction of multiple vaccines and more being learned about this virus, we can hopefully begin to conquer this virus and once again live with no fear. For the meantime, let’s do all the right things we can.

Be safe everybody and happy holidays.

8/5/2020

Hello everyone. We wish you and your family well.

Since last time this page was updated no major changes have taken place with respect to dental care. We are still (and always) following the recommendations for minimizing the risk for COVID as well as other diseases.

For years we have been preventing transmission of disease from dental patients to staff and to each other by adhering to infection control protocols. These protocols make the dentist office perhaps one of the safest places to be. Even though our profession boasts the highest risk for contracting COVID, there are no cases of any dental staff contracting COVID as a result of direct patient care.

We are here when you want to be seen. All you have to do is call.

Everyone stay safe ’til our next update in early September.

7/14/2020

Hello everybody. We hope you and your family are doing well considering everything.

There have been numerous updates over the last several days regarding the current pandemic. Some business have been required to close down again or re-structure how they operate.

None of the new updates impact dental care or other medical related care for that matter. While dentists and dental personnel work in close proximity to the mouth and the airway, because of the rigorous protocols we follow there has not been any evidence of transmission of the virus to or by the dental personnel. Terms like “surface dis-infection” and “infection control” have been part of language since the AIDS outbreak. We have been trained to treat everyone as if they already are infected with some disease. So the new protocols are not that new for us in dentistry.

We have implemented several new protocols to further protect our staff and the public. And we continue to monitor the guidelines for any additional measures. In the meantime, know that our dental practice is open for business with everyone’s safety in mind.

6/2/2020

Hello to everyone. We wish all of you well. It’s hard to believe one month has passed since we opened back up for “regular” business. And we use quotations to emphasize that it is the new regular.

We are updating and continue to update our office in compliance with the latest health guidelines. We are meeting and exceeding the recommendations in an effort to bring peace of mind to our patients. In dentistry we have been trained to treat everyone as if they were contaminated/infected with some disease of some nature. Use of PPE and other physical barriers has always been an integral part of our dental practice.

Over the years we have treated patients with various medical conditions from diabetes to hepatitis and many more. And because of adherence to our infection control principles we have been able to treat all of our patients safely since day one, some 20 years ago! The new novel virus has added additional steps to our existing infection control measures. We have taken these additional steps and measures and continue to do so for the betterment of our entire community. We want and to help everyone feel comfortable and safe at our practice, no matter what new “virus” is going around.

We will continue to pre-screen all of our patients to minimize potential spread of contamination. Temperature checks at the office are being performed. Patients with questionable health status (i.e. I don’t feel well, coughing or a temperature) will be rescheduled. We are doing our best to minimize patient to patient interaction by having patients exit thru the back door upon completion of their treatment. In addition to disinfecting the treatment rooms as always, we are disinfecting the entire office (reception room, door handles, counters, etc.) in between each patient. We are using a fogger sprayer to fog the office daily with biocompatible, EPA approved cleaning/disinfecting medication. The list goes on and on. Bottom line: we want everyone to feel safe when they come for their appointment.

We hope the worse is behind us, but no matter what, we’ll always be up to the challenge.

Everyone be safe and we’ll see you at your next check-up.

5/5/2020

We hope you and your family are doing well and in good health. Our community has been through a lot over the last few months. We are all looking forward to resuming our normal habits and routines, which may not be immediately possible. While many things have changed and continue to change, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to your safety.

Infection control has always been a top priority at our practice. By adhering to rigorous disinfection protocols we have been delivering dentistry safely and comfortably for many years. We follow the guidelines and recommendations of ADA (American Dental Association), CDC (Center for Disease Control & Prevention) and OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) in regards to the current pandemic. As we slowly start to resume operations, you will notice some changes around our office in implementing these guidelines and recommendations. Some of these changes are:

We will communicate with you before your appointment to ask some simple screening questions. The same will be done when you come to your appointment.
We ask all our patients to wear a protective facial mask/covering before entering our office and while they are here. Obviously we’ll ask you to remove the covering at the right time but by doing so we are minimizing risk of virus transmission.
We will be doing a forehead temperature check.
As always we’ll have disinfectants and hand sanitizers for your use.
You’ll notice no magazines or children’s toys or refreshment bar as they are difficult to decontaminate
We ask you to limit the number of people accompanying the patient to their appointment to help maintain a safe social distance for everyone. Parents are encouraged to only bring the child patient, not the rest of the gang.
For our first time patients we will be emailing you the new patient forms to fill out. We ask you to scan the forms (or take a picture with your phone) and then email the forms back.
We are installing several barriers throughout the office.
We have invested in equipment to minimize aerosol during dental treatment

These are only some examples. There are other precautions being taken as well. We just don’t want to inundate you with all the details.

Taking these extra steps and precautions will help create a safer environment for the patient, the staff and all the people coming into contact with them afterwards. We are taking these measures now so hopefully one day soon we can go back to somewhat of the old normal.

Platinum Dental, Inc. Management