Dear Pace Dental Patients:

We hope this email 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 transitioning back to our 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 in order to stay 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.  Our team members will be screened daily, wear disposable gowns, masks and faceshields.

You may see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. Please continue to read below for information on our appointment and scheduling protocols that will allow us to care for our patients and keep patients and staff safe in the process.

Scheduling Protocols:

• Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients.
• Gaps will be left between each appointment, this might mean that you’re offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment.
• Emergency and urgent dental care appointments will receive priority scheduling.
• We are now calling patients to schedule treatment appointments. We are calling patients in the order that they would have been seen, if not for the closure.  So if you had an appointment March 19^th (the day of closure), then you are at the top of our list.
• For our hygiene schedule, if you had a previously scheduled appointment the week of 5/11 or after, we are keeping these appointments as scheduled.  Please let us know in advance if you are unable to keep your previously scheduled hygiene appointment.
• If you had a hygiene appointment that was cancelled due to the office closure, you will be called in the same order the appointments were initially scheduled to reschedule your hygiene appointment.

Appointment Protocols:

• We are taking an additional safety measure that reduces direct contact with paper documents.  We will be sending our patients’ links to the office forms necessary for their appointment.  These forms can be completed with relative ease on a smart phone or computer before the time of the appointment time.
• Our office will communicate with you by texting or emailing a link to ask brief screening questions prior to your appointment. Please take a minute to use the link you receive to complete this questionnaire. 
• When you arrive at the office parking lot, please text us (by replying to your reminder text messages) or call us to let us know you have arrived.  We will let you know when we are ready for you to come in.
• We ask that anyone accompanying you to the appointment remain in the car, unless it is necessary for your companion to support you during your visit.  This is a good way to reduce the amount of people coming in and out of the office.
• We have hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use when you enter and leave the office.
• We will take your temperature and provide hydrogen peroxide for you to rinse with for 30 seconds.

We are so excited to reopen the office and see our amazing patients!  We 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 (703) 938-6800, contact us by email, or visit our website at www.pacedental.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. Saad and the entire team at Pace Dental