As we prepare to restart dentistry our top priority is safety for our teams, our patients, and ourselves.  Its extremely important that we are following state and federal guidlines for safety and that we have the proper PPE and Sanitation supplies. 

Now that we’ve established the required PPE needed, let’s talk about systems and processes that keep the office clean. 

Your team is going to have questions and this process is going to have a learning curve for everyone. The best thing you can do is communicate clearly and stay in communication with your team. These guides will help. 

Once your team is onboard with the plan to reopen, now it’s time to communicate to your patients about new procedures and hours of operation. There will no longer be a 100% safe certainty but every patient that enters your dental practice should be considered to be a COVID patient. This way your protocols and procedures protect everyone.

While the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic crisis continues to be a rapidly changing and fluid situation from a public health perspective, many states have lifted prior mandates and now allowed elective dental care to resume.

Before you turn a patient away, please review the Memo and Screening Appendix, found here. We have also prepared a brief 20-minute training video to provide more guidance and help facilitate your use of the Appendix. View the video here. The presentation slides are found here.

Patients want & need care and this will continue to increase as postponed or patients who were unable to complete dental procedures become critical over time. A Soft Opening will allow the team to adjust to the new normal. There has to be additional time to turn over the room, pre-screen & seat patients as well as donning and doffing PPE. 

The reason to “soft open” is to provide the best care for our patients and find out how to best implement safety protocols for you and your team. You may have more opportunity time in your schedule and there may not to be a rush for dental appointments right away. However, there are things you and your team can be working on now to get ahead for when business is back to normal. 

Consider using a tool like SolutionReach’s text to pay which allows your patients to pay from a secure link on their phone. Using SR Pay, balance notices can be sent directly to a patient’s phone as soon as you know the patient due amount.