Office Update

Snow Day!

Due to the inclement weather and unsafe road conditions, Dentistry For Special People will be closed today, Thursday, February 18^th, 2021.

We understand the importance of getting appointments rescheduled at a date and time that works around your family’s schedule, and we assure you, that will be our priority! As soon as the storm clears and we can safety get back to the office, we will begin reaching out to everyone who had a cancelled appointment and work with you to find a new appointment for your child in the upcoming week.

Although our phones will be off for regular communications, our on call doctor is still available in case of emergency. Please call the main office number of either location for the emergency phone line.

We are always posting updates on all of our social media outlets as well, so now is a great time for you to follow us on our CH Facebook or WT Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Pinterest!

Stay warm, stay safe and enjoy this Snow Day with your family!

 

An Update From Dentistry For Special People Regarding COVID-19: Our Office Is Opening!

We hope this update finds you and your family in good health and in good spirits!

During this time of great uncertainty, we have done our best to continue serving our patients and keep you all aware of any updates on our status. We sincerely hope that we accomplished our goal, which was to help ease the anxiety and uneasy feelings that come from the unknown, as far as your children’s dental health issues are concerned.
As a community, we have all spent the last few months staying at home and doing our part to flatten the curve and slow the spread of the Coronavirus. The data and numbers have shown that we have done a great job at lowering the percentage of positive cases, and can now begin, albeit safely and cautiously, to re-open our doors and get back to what we do best- Taking care of your children’s oral health needs!?
Many things have changed during the past few months, including the way we must do things at our practice, but as you read through the changes and new protocols, please keep in mind that our commitment to our patients and our employees, to put safety and health above all, is still, and will forever be, our #1 priority.

Appointments and Scheduling
In the beginning of May we announced that we had begun the reopening process, which included creating new policies, updating our current policies and implementing new measures to ensure the safety of our patients and employees for when we were given the green light to open our doors. ?With the recommendations of the CDC, the guidance of the ADA and AAPD, and the regulations of NJ State Board of Dentistry as our guide, we are excited to announce that we will begin seeing patients in our office again starting Monday, June 8th, 2020!
As exciting as this news is, we are very aware that an exuberant amount of our patients have had appointments cancelled over the past 10 weeks. We also have a good number of patients with dental pain and dental emergencies, that need to be seen asap. This has been something we, as a practice, have been grappling over for weeks. In order to accommodate all of our patients in a timely manner, we have laid out a plan to prioritize and expedite those with emergent needs, and have also added more hours to our normal office schedule, which means more available appointments.
-We will begin with calling in any patients who had a dental emergency during the time our office was closed and are in need of emergency treatment. These patients will be scheduled during the first 2 weeks, beginning with June 8th, 2020. We have kept a detailed list of everyone that we spoke to or saw as an emergency, and we will use that list to begin the process of reaching out to patients and getting them on the schedule. If your child had or is currently experiencing a dental emergency, you can call the office to schedule an appointment starting June 8th, 2020. We just ask that you please keep in mind that our staff has been trained to thoroughly screen each patient, not just for COVID-19, but also for emergencies that require immediate attention. Believe us when we say that we want to get every patient in as quickly as possible. We just need a little extra patience to make sure no child is left in pain or with an active infection due to lack of appointment availability.
-The 3rd week of our office being open, beginning June 22nd, we will begin seeing patients who had appointments scheduled for fillings and non-emergent extractions that were cancelled during the time our office was shut down. We also have a detailed list of these patients, and our staff will continue reaching out directly to get every child rescheduled.
-The final piece of the scheduling puzzle is hygiene and preventive appointments, which includes cleanings and dental sealants. We are anxious to get this very important piece of your child’s oral health maintenance back on our schedule. As we monitor the beginning weeks of our re-opening, we will assess and decide on when we are confident that we have gotten caught up on treating our patients with urgent needs and are ready to begin a full schedule and open up hygiene appointments. Our goal for this is no later than June 29th, 2020.

New Safety Measures
At Dentistry For Special People, we have always practiced Universal Precautions to the highest possible standard when it comes to sterilization and disinfection. Again, our top priority is the safety and wellbeing of both our patients and our staff. In order to practice dentistry with a virus like the novel coronavirus still present in our community, we had to adapt and enhance our already strict and stringent infection control policies and procedures. Because of this, things might look a little different, and possibly a little intimidating, when you bring your child in for their next appointment. We suggest talking to your children and making sure they know that our office is taking all of these precautions to keep them, their families, and ourselves, safe and protected. Remind them that underneath the “uniform” is still the same friendly doctors and staff they know and love?
-Below are some of the new procedures and policies that we have implemented in our practice. Our staff is currently being trained and will be fully prepared and ready to answer any questions or concerns you may have along the way. Please take the time to read through this list, as we hope it will instill some reassurance and help when preparing your kids!

• Staff will have daily temperature readings and health screenings upon arrival and prior to starting each day
• Clinical Staff will be wearing additional PPE including face shields, N95 masks, head covers, shoe covers & gowns.
• Our front desk and administrative staff will be wearing face masks at all times, and we have installed sneeze guards at both Check In and Check Out
• Photo ID’s will be worn by all staff, to help kids recognize our familiar faces underneath all of our PPE!
• Medical grade HEPA air purifiers have been placed around the office & in each operatory.
• High-volume evacuation equipment will be used when doing aerosol producing procedures to help with the reduction in aerosols
• UVC lights will be used to aid in the infection control process
• Virtual Waiting Room! Check In/Check Out, including forms and payments, will be done via your mobile device
• Patients will be pre-screened prior to their appointments and temps will be taken at appt.
• Hygiene Stations with hand sanitizer, masks, and tissues, will be available at multiple locations throughout the office for patient use
• Social distancing will be implemented by staggering appointments and limiting the number of families in our office at one time
• Common areas and surfaces such as doorknobs, counters & walls will be sterilized thoroughly between every appointment
• A brand-new system for prizes has been created, to keep tiny little hands clean and away from germs!
• Patients and guardians will be asked to wear a face mask while inside the office. This is to keep everyone as safe as we can and prevent the spread of any germs!

We appreciate beyond words, your patience as we work through the re-opening and re-appointing process and cannot wait to see your smiling faces once again (even if it is behind a mask)!

COVID-19 UPDATE

06/6/2020

We're back and ready for patients! We are so excited to bring everyone back in for their appointments and have laid out some guidelines to aid us in doing so. For a full list of the guidelines please click HERE.

We are extremely grateful for the patience you have shown as we navigated our way through these crazy times and, although as a community we have a long way to go before we can say the pandemic is behind us, we are confident that if we remain vigilant

 and work together we can continue to keep our practice open and your children smiling! 

COVID-19 UPDATE

4/01/2020

UPDATE: Dentistry For Special People has continued to monitor the rapidly changing circumstances related to unprecedented state of COVID-19 (Coronavirus). This is new territory for everyone, including us, and we have been diligently following the national, state, and local authorities’ directives throughout, to ensure that we stay up-to-date and focused. Our office has been continually taking precautions and making necessary adjustments in our everyday operations and interactions, to safeguard our patients, staff, and doctors during this time.

Due to COVID-19, a State of Emergency was declared by Camden County officials as well as the State of NJ. All elective dental procedures have been ordered cancelled until further notice. In line with this, the Statewide Stay at Home Order signed by NJ Governor Phil Murphy, and most importantly, to assist with the social distancing efforts of our community, Dentistry For Special People will remain closed at both our Cherry Hill and Washington Twp. locations, until further notice and directives are given from the proper authorities.

*For any patients who experience a true dental emergency, we do have a doctor working on-call 24/7. You can reach our On-Call doctor by calling our office and listening to the prompts.

During the interim, we will be rearranging our schedule to open up additional days and times in the upcoming months, in order to accommodate for every appointment that needs to be rescheduled. Our goal is to begin to reach out to you directly to reschedule your appointments sometime at the end of April, however we will continue to monitor the situation on a day-to-day basis. We are posting updates on all of our social media outlets, so now is a great time for you to follow us on our CH Facebook or WT Facebook Pages, Twitter, Instagram, and even Pinterest!!

-If you are looking to reschedule your cancelled appointment and are waiting to hear from us, you can also click HERE to make an online request, and we will get in touch with you once our office begins the rescheduling process.

As always, the health, safety and security of our patients, our employees and their families, will always be of the utmost importance to us. Please know that we are thinking of all of you, each and every day, and we sincerely hope that everyone in our “Dental Home” has a safe place to “shelter in” during this time. While we are, for all intents and purposes, “oral healthcare providers”, we are also truly invested in the total wellbeing of our patients. If you find your family in need of any help or assistance during this time, please reach out to us, as we do have access to information and resources that we can share.

Thank you for bearing with us during this unprecedented time, and for allowing us to continue to provide you with an exceptional and safe Dental Home for your children.

COVID-19 UPDATE

3/17/2020

UPDATE: Dentistry For Special People has continued to monitor the rapidly changing circumstances related to the COVID-19 coronavirus. Our office has been continually taking precautions and making necessary adjustments in our everyday operations and interactions, to safeguard our patients, staff, and doctors during this time.

Due to the COVID-19, a State of Emergency was declared by Camden County officials. The American Dental Association has made the recommendation to postpone elective dental procedures. Therefore, out of an abundance of caution, and to assist with the social distancing efforts of our community, Dentistry For Special People will temporarily close effective Wednesday, March 18, 2020 through Tuesday, March 31, 2020, with a tentative reopen date of April 1, 2020.

*For any patients who experience a true dental emergency, we will have a doctor working on-call 24/7. You can reach our On-Call doctor by calling our office and listening to the prompts.

- If you are looking to reschedule your cancelled appointment, you can make an online request HERE, and we will be in touch once our office re-opens.

The health, safety and security of our patients, our employees and their families, will always be of the utmost importance to us. Thank you for bearing with us and for allowing us to continue to provide you with an exceptional and safe Dental Home for your children.

A Message from Dentistry For Special People Regarding COVID-19

As you all are aware, the circumstances surrounding the Coronavirus (COVID-19) are continuing to develop each day, and with the rapid-fire nature of today’s modern media, details vary from channel to channel, Tweet to Facebook Feed, leaving us feeling confused as to what next steps should be taken, and how quickly. Our goal at Dentistry For Special is to stay well-informed, plan effective protocols, and, as always, keep the wellbeing of our patient families and team at the forefront.

The health and safety of our patients, families, employees and colleagues is our number 1 priority, and you can rest-assured that our team always has and will continue to adhere to strict OSHA and CDC (Center for Disease Control) infection control guidelines and sterilization measures. We have been closely monitoring both State and Federal developments, including the CDC, and have implemented their recommendations to ensure a safe environment for all of our patients and staff, as well as the community as a whole. As of now, our office will remain open to provide care for your child unless directed otherwise by the governing authorities. While as a pediatric dental practice we have always practiced Universal Precautions to the highest possible standard when it comes to sterilization and disinfection, as an added precaution, we have added to our Infection Control protocols to ensure that we can continue to provide quality dental care in a safe environment. From the waiting area and play area to the front desk and patient rooms, we are hard at work sterilizing and disinfecting in between patients and behind the scenes. We are also prepared to address the needs of individual patients on a case-by-case basis to ensure that no one if left to feel vulnerable.

What Are We Doing To Keep Our Office, Patients, And Staff Safe?

- We’ve expanded our office cleaning protocol to include (but not limited to): wiping contact surfaces like doorknobs, toys, toilet handles, bathroom faucets and desk countertops every 30 minutes throughout the day.

- We will continue to utilize emerging information regarding COVID-19 to establish, and modify if necessary, screening procedures for all patients and team members, as well as enhanced safety protocols to minimize the chance for transmission within our dental office.

What Can You Do To Help?

- First and foremost, we ask that if you or your child are having any symptoms (fever, cough, sore throat, breathing difficulties, etc.) please call our office and we will reschedule your child’s appointment

- If you or your child have traveled to or been in contact with anyone who has traveled to a high-risk area, we ask that you please call to reschedule your appointment to a minimum of 2 weeks out or longer. This is to allow enough time to pass to ensure you have not been infected by COVID-19

- We encourage you to go online to our Patient Portal at http://bit.ly/DfspPatientPortal to fill out any necessary paperwork prior to your appointment. This will ensure minimal hand to hand transactions and the use of communal pens at our office.

- If you are anxious about bringing your child into the waiting room for extended periods of time, many of our parents have elected to wait in their vehicle until the exam room is prepared, and we are ready to bring your child back. If you choose to wait outside, please call our office once you have parked, to “Check In” with our Front Desk. We will then contact you when we are ready to bring your child back to the operatory.

- When you come into the office, please use the hand sanitizers at the front desk, or wash your hands in the patient bathroom

- If/when possible, we ask that you kindly, do not bring siblings into the office who do not have a scheduled appointment.

IMPORTANT SCREENING INFORMATION:
If you, your child, or anyone you are in close contact with has been sick, or displays symptoms including coughs, fevers, respiratory illness within the last 14 days, please call us to reschedule your child’s appointment. Similarly, if you, your child or anyone you have been in close contact with has travelled domestically or internationally please inform our office prior to your child’s visit. Because we do see a number of medically compromised and fragile patients, as well as infants who have not had the time to build up an immune system, we are taking extra precautions with our patient screening process, to avoid doing anything that could place these children, or anyone else, in jeopardy.

Remember- We are here for you and your children. If you feel uneasy or unsure of whether to bring your child to their scheduled appointment, the best thing to do is CALL US! We will work with you to decide the best and most responsible plan of action.

Dental Emergencies: If your child is sick and has a dental emergency or is in pain, again, please call our office right away. We can discuss options with you and arrange to treat your child in the safest manner possible.

On a final note, you can be confident that all of us at Dentistry For Special People are committed to offering you the top-notch service you expect from us, while also protecting our entire TeamDfsp family. We will remain vigilant and continue to do whatever we can ensure your safety.

Kind Regards,
Dr. Sayany and Staff of Dentistry For Special People