Dear Patients and Families of Clayton Kids Dentistry,

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.

You may see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to help protect our patients and staff. Some of the things you may notice include, but are not limited to:

• Our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. You’ll be asked those same questions again when arrive at the office.
• We will take your child’s temperature and the temperature of anyone who will be escorting the child into the office for their appointment. If your child has a temperature over 100.4, we will not be able to see them. 
• We are limiting the number of people in the office to support social distancing. This means that ONLY one parent or guardian may come with your child. Siblings will ONLY be allowed if they are scheduled for a simultaneous visit. If additional visitors arrive, we’ll unfortunately ask you to make other arrangements. 
• We are requiring all individuals who enter our clinic to wear a well-fitted mask or face covering at all times. Any patient 3 years of age or younger is exempt from this requirement. Please make sure to arrive with your mask, as we are unable to supply additional masks due to the shortage of supply. 
• We have hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use when you enter the office. You will also find some in the reception area and other places in the office for you to use as needed.
• You may see that our waiting room will no longer offer coffee, magazines, children’s toys and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect. 
• 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.

You will see the doctor and clinical staff all wearing masks, face shields and gowns. They will of course still make your child’s dental visit as fun and as non-threatening as possible.  Anything you can do to help your child adjust to the “new norm” would be great: practice wearing masks and bandanas, teach your child how to wash their hands frequently during the day and use hand sanitizer, talk about doctors, dental hygienists and dental assistants wearing “cool” face shields and how we are all there to help them and make them feel SAFE!

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 919-553-3202 or visit our website at www.claytonkidsdentistry.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. Patel and the Clayton Kids Dentistry Team