COVID-19 has certainly changed all of our lives. I hope that this letter finds each of you and all of your family members healthy and COVID-free. To help control the spread our office has new policies. The WDA and CDC have updated recommendations for dental offices with strict guidelines that we follow. Kraklow Quality Dentistry will adhere to these guidelines beginning Monday, May 4th, and continue to follow any updates.

A simple procedure not treated today can become a complex, painful and expensive procedure in a short time. The need for care will continue to increase and become more critical over time if left untreated.

Dentistry has always followed strict OSHA guidelines with regard to universal precautions but with this particular virus and ones that may attack in the future, more stringent CDC recommendations have been added for your safety and for my safety and that of my dental team.

In compliance with the new recommendations for public health, we ask that if you have a cough or fever you reschedule your appointment. Your health and that of my office staff are equally important.

Upon entering the office, you will now be asked to hand sanitize, fill out the COVID questionnaire at EACH visit, and have your forehead thermometer reading taken. A reading of 100F will send you home. We have removed magazines and several waiting room chairs to maintain social distancing. If more than 2 people are in the waiting area, we will ask you to wait in your car and we will call you when you may come into the office so as to maintain the 6-foot social distancing recommendation. In addition, each room will now have a medical-grade filtration unit. These effectively filter out particles as small as and smaller than the coronavirus. Once filtered, the air is purified within minutes. In addition, each hygienist will now be working out of 2 rooms so that there will never be a back-to-back patient situation in any treatment room to allow for complete disinfection of the entire room. I have provided the entire staff with the recommended Personal Protective Equipment and have an onsite washer and dryer to take care of all employee scrubs. Footwear will remain onsite and disinfected daily. Staff temperatures will also be taken twice a day. No employee will treat a patient with a fever or cough.

Once in the treatment room, each patient will rinse with 3% Hydrogen Peroxide which has anti-fungal and anti-viral properties to reduce any virus in a potential aerosol.

Additionally, we will make sure you hand sanitize at the end of the visit and return to the front desk. The front desk staff will be in mask and will be sanitizing the door handles and desk area constantly!

I have been practicing for 34 years and plan to work safely for many more. I cherish the many relationships that have been created over the years and I will truly miss the handshakes and hugs. That makes me sad as some of you have been with me since 1992. With that being said, we will get through this together and will be better for it!

Yours most sincerely,
Thomas J Kraklow, DDS, and my entire team