Re-opening in the face of Covid-19

It has been two months since the Minnesota Board of Dentistry, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Minnesota Governor closed all dental offices to procedures other than dental urgencies.

In those two months Dr. Amble and his staff reviewed information and recommendations from the Minnesota Governor’s office, Minnesota Board of Dentistry, ADA, MDA, CDC, and OSHA and developed our new facility plan, purchased additional equipment and personal protective equipment, and trained staff with a multitude of new procedures.

We always followed universal precautions as developed and recommended by the above groups in the past, but there are many changes that you will notice when you see us next. Here is a high level summary of the new things we are doing, beyond the universal precautions pre-covid-19 that we practiced the last time you saw us:

1. You will be pre-screened the day before your appointments and again the day you come in for your appointment.
   1. We will ask you to wait in your vehicle and call us prior to entering the building so we can be sure to be ready for you and not have you wait in reception.
   2. We have hand sanitizer at the front door for you to please use when you come in.
   3. We ask that only the patient comes to each appointment (no waiting in the reception area for the time being). If the patient is a minor we request that no more than one parent accompany them.
   4. If you are feeling ill we will not see you (for your safety and ours) but we will get you rescheduled.
2. We have changed to wearing scrubs that are laundered on site for each employee, disposable gowns for each individual appointment, hair bonnets, face shields, and a more intense face mask called a N95 for any invasive / aerosolizing procedure.
3. We will have windows open for air circulation whenever possible and have added HEPA filters to every operatory.
4. We also added UV-C (ultraviolet sterilization) to every room so that at the end of each patient appointment we can sterilize the entire room prior to wiping down everything as our normal procedures call for.

As a group, we have all reviewed, been trained, and practiced these procedures, which is not to say that we have everything down for the completely smooth transitions you saw prior to March 17th. If you notice that something takes longer or looks awkward, feel free to ask about it, but please also know that we have practically doubled the number of steps we are taking (beyond universal precautions) to keep us and each one of you safe.

We look forward to seeing you again as we work our way back to full operation in the coming few weeks.

From all of us at Grand Avenue Dental, LLC please stay well!

Paul D. Amble, DDS
Megan L. Mulligan, DDS
Robin, Michelle, Maika, Tracy, Janice, Kristen, Mary Jo, and Bob