COVID-19 Update


Dear Sky Dental Patients:

We hope you and your family are staying safe and healthy during these unusual times. We have missed seeing our old friends and welcoming new ones here at Sky Dental. 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 since we were last fully operational, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to your safety. As we are getting ready to resume operations in June, we wanted to review a few changes you will notice on your next appointment.

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.

You may see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to help protect our patients and staff. For example:

  • We will be implementing a “virtual waiting room.” If you drive, we will ask you to wait in your car and text the office 5-10 minutes prior to your appointment and enter the building only after having been cleared to do so. If you don’t drive, we ask you to, weather permitting, remain outside in an uncrowded area and follow the aforementioned text protocol (Ann Sather Restaurant parking lot is a good option if Belmont Ave is busy.) If, due to weather or other reasons, you’re unable to wait outside, contact the office 20-30 minutes prior to your arrival and necessary arrangements will be made.
  • Our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. You’ll be asked those same questions again when you are in the office. We will also provide you a Covid-19 consent form to review and sign.
  • We will ask you to wear a mask before coming to the office and keep it on until you’re in the operatory and are instructed to remove it. Once your procedure is complete, we will again ask you to place your mask back on.
  • Your temperature will be taken upon entering the office.
  • We will ask our patients to come to their appointments alone unless the person accompanying the patient is legally necessary (guardian, translator, etc.)
  • Please use the elevator one person at a time (with the exception of persons legally accompanying patients as discussed above.) Use stairs as needed.
  • We have hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use when you enter the office. You will also find some in other locations in the office for you to use as needed.
  • Even though Sky Dental is almost completely digital, there is still the need for a physical signature from time to time e.g. credit card receipts. To avoid cross contamination, we ask you to bring a pen with you.
  • You may see that our waiting room will no longer offer magazines, coffee bar, and bottled water since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect.
  • Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you’re offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment. We also ask for your assistance in running an on-time schedule and ensuring the patient flow in and out of the office is predictable and calculated. In order to maintain that orderly flow, we will not be able to see patients who are more than 15 minutes late.
  • 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.
  • We greatly value your time and commitment to your health and understand that rescheduling an appointment can be very inconvenient. Under normal circumstances, it is extremely unlikely for us to have to cancel and reschedule patients. We will try to proceed the same way going forward, but our new reality increases the possibility of last-minute changes. Our outmost priority is the safety of our patients and staff. That is why there might be scenarios, such as staff members reporting Covid-19 symptoms or testing positive for it, where the office has to close for either short or extended periods of time. We hope to avoid such cases but as you may imagine, those scenarios are not entirely in our control. We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

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 773-840-8484 or use the online appointment option on this website. 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. Ali Taghipour and Sky Dental Team

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