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We are excited to announce we will be opening May 4th to continue your treatment.

 

During the past 6 weeks, we closed the office for routine orthodontic treatment in accordance with the ADA and State and Federal agencies in order to flatten the curve, reserve PPE for hospitals, and reduce the transmission of the novel Coronavirus. 

During this break from our patients - we didn't rest.  We implemented new protocols, updated our practice management system, and brought new virtual technologies to our website to reduce the friction with communicating with our patients.  These technologies such as virtual consultations and virtual appointments will stick around and will be utilized when we get back to work in our physical office.

There are many industries that are getting back to work in Georgia.  Orthodontic and dental services have been providing emergency care for all our patients during this time.  There are 8 major guidelines that we will be adhering to when we return back to work to keep our staff and our patients safe and will keep these guidelines in place until the ADA, CDC, and OSHA change them and or modify them.  

Following the current guidelines and imposing some stricter tactics, we have implemented some additional best practices that for the time being we would like our patients to be aware of:

While we will be returning to the office, our schedule and patient flow will be modified in the following way:  

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• We have reduced the number of patients seen per day and spaced our patients' appointments out to allow us to fully disinfect every surface of the patient's clinical area with disinfectant including typically clean areas like our guest bench area.  

• If you or a family member is sick with any one of the COVID-19 symptoms we ask that you please stay at home and/or seek medical advice.  

• We are scheduling just 2 patients at a time in the clinic and spacing them out in the clinical area.  

• We are asking that just 1 parent or guardian be present with the patient if possible.  This will reduce the overall number of people in the office at a time.  We understand that this may not be possible for everyone as kids are out of school and everyone's schedule is a little different right now.  

• We also ask that if you are accompanying a patient that you wear a mask in the waiting room.  With only 2 patients in the office at a time, it will be easier for those wanting to distance themselves from others.

• We have reduced some common contact surfaces in the office by removing such items as our magazines, gaming systems, and patient coffee/espresso maker.

• We will be wearing facemasks and full coverage face masks when working on our patients.  We are screening our staff daily and if any member of our staff has any COVID signs or symptoms they will not be at the office and will not return for 14 days or until released to come back to work by their doctor.

• We have soap at our tooth brushing station and ask that when you brush your teeth you wash your hands for 20 seconds.

• We will close a little earlier every day so that we can do a thorough cleaning of all surfaces of the nonclinical and clinical area.

 

We will begin reaching out to our patients this week and will continue until we get everyone an appointment.  We are calling our patients in the order of those who haven't been seen in the longest time frame.  If you do not hear from us, please call us at 678.745.5388 and we will get you scheduled right away.  Please understands that we typically "work patients into the schedule" in order to accommodate your schedule but given these limitations, we do not have the ability to schedule outside of our current template. 

Even with all of these guidelines being adhered to, we understand that there will be some patients and families who may not be comfortable at coming into an office yet and that is okay.   Just let us know this when we reach out to you.  

We hope you and your family are doing well and cannot wait to see everyone soon!

Dr. Bret and the Village Ortho family