What to Bring

• Your current dental insurance card.
• Legal photo ID
• Completed patient registration forms; you can find them here.
  It’s always good to arrive a few minutes early to your first appointment to take care of the forms.
• X-rays (if applicable). X-rays from a previous dentist or physician can be forwarded to our office.
• A list of your current medications.

A visit to the dentist can put you on a path towards a good oral health and better lifestyle not to mention a beautiful smile! As the saying goes “a stitch in time saves nine” – Taking care of any problems today will help you avoid serious and expensive health issues down the road.

What to Expect

When you arrive, you’ll be greeted by our front office staff. They will review your forms and discuss the reasons for your visit.

Your initial appointment typically includes a comprehensive review of your dental needs and concerns, a review of your health history, and an exam by your dentist. In most instances, your initial appointment also includes a dental cleaning. Additional treatment may be scheduled for a future date. This careful approach allows us to properly diagnose and thoughtfully plan any needed procedures.

Dental History, Cleaning, and Examination

When it’s time for your appointment, you’ll be taken to an exam room. We will review your dental needs and concerns, and your health history. We will evaluate and chart your existing restorations and gum/bone support, review any x-rays, conduct a head and neck exam, and perform an oral cancer screening.

If gum disease isn’t an issue, you’ll receive a dental cleaning. We will also take a new set of x-rays if needed.

We will then perform an examination, including:

• A tooth-by-tooth check for decay.
• An oral cancer screening.
• An assessment of periodontal (gum) health.
• A bite evaluation.

Our dentists will discuss your current oral health status, as well as your short-term and long-term dental goals. They will explain any recommended treatments and answer any questions you have. Additional treatment may be performed the same day.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of things about our daily lives. Your regular visits to the dentist have changed, too. To that effect we at Complete Dental Care of Avon have adopted a science-based guidance developed by the American Dental Association, in addition to the infection control procedures we’ve always followed, to help protect their patients and staff.

We have taken several additional precautions and steps to ensure your safety.

Before Your Appointment

To help make sure that patients arriving for their appointments are healthy, your dental office may call you before your appointment and ask you some questions about your current health. They may also repeat these questions when you arrive to make sure nothing has changed.

Your dentist’s office staff may also ask that you limit the number of people you bring to the appointment. That could mean leaving your children at home or allowing older children to go into the office alone while their parent waits outside during their appointment.

At Your Appointment

If your state or city is requiring people to wear masks in public, be sure to wear one to your appointment. When you arrive at the dental office, you may be asked to wait outside until they’re ready for you. This will reduce the number of people in the office and reduce the amount of time you’re close to other people. When you enter the office, you may have your temperature taken.

Inside the office, you may notice things people often touch in the waiting room – like toys or magazines – have been removed. They may have hand sanitizer available for you to use and may wipe down items you touch, such as pens, clipboards or furniture.

When you’re in the dental chair, you may notice some things look different from the last time you were there. The dentist may have covered the computer’s keyboard with a disposable cover so it can be easily cleaned between patients, for example. Your dentist may also be using different protective equipment than they’ve used at previous appointments. This could include different masks, face shields, gowns and goggles. These additional precautions help protect both you and the dentist.

After Your Appointment

After your appointment is over, the staff will thoroughly clean the areas where you’ve been using disinfectants that are effective against the virus that causes COVID-19 to prepare for the next patient. This helps reduce the risk of illness being passed to others.

If you start feeling ill with the symptoms of COVID-19 within 14 days of your appointment, call the dental office. You may have already been carrying the virus at the time of your appointment, so anyone who came into contact with you during that time could be at risk for getting sick too.

We are setting the highest standard possible considering all the recommendations and developing the best practices.

Office Enhancements & New Protocols:

Sneeze Guard Installation – We have installed sneeze guards at the reception counters to protect patients and staff from airborne contaminants.

Medical Grade Purifiers – We have installed medical grade purifiers with Medical Grade H13 Filters (higher rated than True HEPA) 99.97% particle removal to cover the entire office. H13 True HEPA is considered medical grade air filtration.

Additional PPE for Clinicians – Our clinical staff as well as our dentists will have a new look when you see them next. They will be sporting face shields, masks and gowns, when appropriate, as added protection.

Extra oral dental suction – Alongside intraoral suction unit that we routinely use, we have also added an extraoral suction system that is designed to safely capture chairside aerosols. This helps to protect our patients and staff from airborne contaminants.

Routine Disinfection – We will be wiping down all touchable surfaces (counters, chairs, doorknobs, switches, etc.) on a regular basis with EPA-approved cleaners. We have also removed all potential COVID-19 transmission material from the reception area (magazines and coffee machine) and will prop the reception area door open to limit surface contamination.

Staff Screening – We will be screening staff daily and taking staff temperatures to ensure we are coming to the office healthy.

Staggered Appointment Times and New Check-In Procedures – We will be limiting as much as possible the number of patients in our office at any given time. To that end, we will have staggered appointment times as well as new check-in procedures (more on that below).