Update to families on 4/29/2020

We miss seeing our beautiful patients and hearing all of their stories! This crisis has made us appreciate our role in your family’s life and we can’t wait to see everyone really soon. 

We know we will be returning to care for your families and journey through this crisis together. 

It is important that you know we have always taken your health and safety very seriously.  Preventative and protective measures have always been a priority before and after each appointment, from our protective eyewear, masks and gloves to the way we disinfect every portion of the treatment areas in the practice.  

Moving forward, we know there will be changes to the way we practice.  At this point, we are busy evaluating additional steps that will be made to meet the heightened guidelines for each appointment as directed by the Center for Disease Control and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

If you ever have any questions or concerns regarding the steps we take for protection and prevention, we welcome you to call us at the practice at any time and we would be more than happy to walk you through our processes.

When we start to see patients again, the process in which you come into the practice and wait for your appointment will look different.  The way we protect you and ourselves during your appointment will also look different.  Please know that the steps we will take are to respect the guidelines being given to us and to continue to take the best possible care of your family!  

We are so grateful that you continue to place your trust in our hands.  We want you to know that we take that responsibility very seriously and we truly look forward to when we are able to take care of your family once again.  We will be reaching out over time to stay in touch, to give you updates and to begin prioritizing appointments in our schedule to help those in most dire need of dental attention.  Additionally, we will be updating our website with relevant information (www.pediatricdentistryofsalisbury.com).  

If you feel you may be experiencing a dental emergency at this time, please call 520-490-5743 and we will determine with you the condition of your dental emergency.

Thank you for choosing us as your dental home.  Know that we look forward to caring for you very soon and that your ultimate health and well-being will continue to be our top priority as we work together to care for you at your next appointment.

Wishing you good health,

Dr. Lewis and the team at Pediatric Dentistry of Salisbury

Update as of 3/16/2020

While the present official figures for the Coronavirus in Maryland and particularly in Delmarva are relatively low, experts predict those numbers will grow in the coming weeks.  In the interest of patient health, as well as the health of our team members and their families, our office will be implementing measures that can play a role in limiting the spread throughout our entire community.  

Starting Tuesday, March 17, and continuing until further notice, we will be limiting care to emergency care only. If you have a scheduled appointment, we will be in touch with you to notify you of the cancellation. When it is safe to resume normal operations, we will contact you to reschedule.  If you have questions or concerns, you may still reach us by phone during our regular business hours. As always, if your child is a patient of our office and has a dental emergency, you will be able to reach a doctor by phone after hours as well.

This decision was not made lightly, but is necessary in order to protect our patients and staff after reading updated recommendations from the CDC and OSHA. Dental procedures generate a large number of droplets and aerosols and the latest advice is that our standard personal protective equipment is not effective enough to prevent the spread of COVID-19, especially when patients are in the incubation period and are unaware they are infected. This is especially unique to our profession as children are being found to be asymptomatic carriers. This means that screening is no longer considered effective in capturing all who may be infected with the virus. Working on a child that has the virus may result in the virus being airborne in our office for up to 3 hours, and we are not comfortable with the potential to spread this virus to our other patients and their families. There simply is not enough evidence to prove that even with strict infection control measures, continuing to provide dental treatment at this time is safe.

OSHA has placed dental professionals in the “very high exposure risk” category in regards to COVID-19. Current recommendations are that dentists wear N95 masks for dental treatment during this pandemic. However, not only are these masks extremely difficult to obtain at this time, but most importantly, they need to be conserved for other professions that are at the forefront of fighting this virus.

We are sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause, but it is imperative that as a community, we slow the spread of this virus, and that requires extreme measures.

Our patients’ health and well-being continue to be our top priority. (3/13/2020)

As a dental practice, we are already accustomed to adhering to strict infection control routines that help prevent the transmission of illnesses such as the flu and COVID-19/Coronavirus. To protect our patients and staff, we have taken universal precautions including meticulous hand hygiene and disinfecting all contact points between patients.

If you currently have an appointment scheduled, we ask that you please contact us if you have any symptoms or have reason to believe that you have been exposed to COVID-19/Coronavirus.

These symptoms may include fever, coughing, and shortness of breath. We will ask you to reschedule your appointment to ensure the health and safety of our staff and patients.

Additionally, we ask if you have traveled internationally in the last 14 days, or have been in close contact with another person who has been diagnosed with or under investigation for COVID-19/Coronavirus. We will ask you to reschedule your appointment to ensure the health and safety of our staff and patients.

During this time, we will be removing all extraneous objects from the lobby as they cannot be easily wiped with a disinfectant. In doing so, we will regrettably be removing our toy box in order to minimize the risk of disease. We understand your children look forward to the toys in the office but we are taking our responsibility very seriously in helping to combat the spread of COVID-19/Coronavirus.

Thank you for your help in keeping everyone safe. We are here for your health.