O’Kane & Monssen Family Dentistry Reopens Following COVID-19 Shutdown
To our Patients:
We hope this letter finds you and your family in good health. We are pleased to announce that O’Kane & Monssen Family Dentistry will soon reopen its office in accordance with guidance from the Minnesota governor’s office, the American Dental Association, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. We look forward to serving you and want to share the steps we are taking to ensure the safety of our patients and employees.
We are currently treating emergency patients only but expect to expand our services in the coming weeks. Our first priority is to treat critical patients, particularly those who have been asked to delay fillings, crowns and other restorative dental care because of the statewide shelter-in-place order. General exams and cleanings will soon follow.
We will keep you informed of our progress as we carefully reopen our dental office. We have already adopted new scheduling and appointment procedures for the safety of all.
Appointments
We are scheduling appointments to limit the number of patients in our office at any one time, to allow for social distancing between patients and to provide our team with extra time for additional safety measures. We will be extending our office hours to offer more appointment scheduling options.
Before your appointment, our staff will contact you to ask general questions about your health. We will ask those same questions again when you come for your appointment. Please do not come to the office if you are feeling ill, have a cough, sore throat, diarrhea/stomach issues, fever, chills or have been around anyone who is ill.
Some of the changes you can expect during your next appointment include the following:
All patients are asked to wear a mask to their appointment for their protection and the protection of others. Appropriate masks can include home-made masks, scarves, bandanas and buffs that cover the nose and mouth completely.
During our expanded check in, you will have your temperature taken on your forehead. In a private consultation room, you will be asked to wash your hands and then a staff member will take your blood pressure and review your medical history and COVID-19 screening forms.
Please bring your own entertainment (reading materials, mobile devices with headphones) because our reception area will no longer contain magazines or children’s toys, which are difficult to clean and disinfect.
Our dental team will be wearing additional personal protection equipment (PPE), including N95 masks, face shields and additional protective clothing.
Please dress in layers as our office will be cooler than you remember. The lower temperature will help keep our staff comfortable in their additional layers of PPE.
We look forward to seeing you again and are happy to answer any questions about the steps we are taking to keep you, and every patient, safe. We will send another update once a date is set to reopen our office. Patients with existing appointments will be contacted and other patients will be able to schedule new appointments at that time.
Thank you for entrusting us with your dental care. We look forward to welcoming back our patients, neighbors and friends.
Sincerely,
O’Kane & Monssen Dental Team
