Dear Families and Friends,

On behalf of our entire dental team, we'd like to take a moment to say thank you again for your loyalty and support. We are happy to inform you that the California Department of Public Health has lifted their restrictions and we can reopen our dental practice.

We are now preparing to welcome all of you back into our office (after proper screening, of course) and have some exciting changes for you! Aside from the obvious - updated protocols to include precautions such as: pre-screening patients and staff and ADS aerosol particulate removers and air purifiers by our dental chairs, COVID compliant face masks, shields and gowns, disinfecting, sterilizing and social distancing to help stop the spread of coronavirus and keep everyone healthy! We've also upgraded our communication systems. You will now be able to do a lot more things from your cell phone. We are working hard to evolve, so that we can continue to show up in a meaningful way for you and your families, our dental team and community.

We want to continue to bring you the highest service and convenience you need, even if it may look a little different than it has in the past. We know that many of you are eager to get back to normal operations, and we are too!

It really can't be said enough—your health, and the health of our employees, are our top priority. And every decision we make is through that lens. We want to be sure the approach we are taking to reopen is thoughtful, and that we are creating a dental environment that is safe for everyone.

Since cavities, gingivitis, infections, tartar, and fractured teeth wait for no one.

How will Dental Appointments be scheduled?

Our team will start calling you to schedule your appointment starting the week of May 18th. We are aware many patients are overdue for their appointments, and we will try to get patients in as soon as possible. We will be contacting you to check in on you and see how you are doing. We will do our best to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting times for you, and reduce the number of patients in the office at any one time.

**To continue with social distancing recommendations, we politely request that only the patient enter the office for dental treatment. We appreciate your understanding.

What are some new office protocols?

We take pride that in our dental office, the application of the strictest, evidenced-based universal infection control measures have always been a top priority for our practice, and we will continue to follow the latest recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control. In our effort to reduce the spread of COVID 19 and increase patient and staff safety, we have implemented some new protocols:

• All patients will have a short phone interview before your appointment is confirmed.
• When you arrive, we ask that you remain in your car and call us, until you get the green light to come up. This will minimize multiple patients crossing paths.
• Please arrive with a mask or face covering.
• When you arrive, we will reconfirm that you do not have any cold, flu or allergy symptoms (allergy symptoms may mimic flu symptoms)
• We will take everyone’s temperature with a ‘no touch’ thermometer.
• We request that you use the hand sanitizer in the reception area upon entering the office, and we encourage frequent handwashing.
• Please brush your teeth before the appointment.
• We may ask you to use a pre-procedural over the counter mouth rinse (Peroxyl 1.5% hydrogen peroxide) as recommended by the American Dental Association.

We're making updates to our office and the way we serve you to help keep everyone healthy. Some of those updates include:

• Conducting daily health screenings of our employees
• Taking steps to allow for social distancing of six feet or more, including limiting the number of employees and customers in the office
• New Teledentistry communication system and new dental equipment
• New uniforms and wearing some additional PPE’s
• New Chair-side air filtration and aerosol removal units
• New building air filtering system

Since we are a small business, many of our loyal patients have asked how they can help support our dental practice. Your thoughtful messages of support for our team are warmly received and have really made a difference in what has been a stressful and difficult time for all of us. We are all in this together. When we opened our dental practice, the positive “word of mouth” recommendations that we have received from your families have helped us grow through the years. At this time, we would greatly appreciate it if you could continue to spread the word about our office and our wonderful team.

We look forward to seeing you all again in time. Besides getting your child's dental health back on track, we hope you will share your stories of how your world has changed. Hopefully, there are some lovely moments you can tell us about too.

Again, thank you for your continued loyalty and for continuing to entrust your dental care to our experienced team. We sincerely appreciate you and very much look forward to welcoming you back into our practice. Keep up the brushing and flossing!

Stay well and healthy,

Dr. Margareta M. Gavrila D.D.S.

Dr. Alexander C. Gavrila D.D.S., Prosthodontist

And all of our wonderful staff members at Gavrila Dental.