We Make Kids Smile is committed to maintaining a safe environment for our patients, families, and staff. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, our practice will now be using a variety of enhanced disinfection protocols and new technologies to mitigate risks from airborne particles (aerosols), both in the air and when they settle on surfaces. This is in addition to the stringent procedures we have always used to protect the health of our community.
The following information further explains our COVID-19 mitigation plan.
1. Surface Disinfection
In addition to using recommended chemical agents, our clinical team will now be using spray disinfection and require the disinfectant to air-dry, instead of using disinfectant wipes in our treatment areas. This allows additional time for the disinfectant to inactivate harmful particles.
2. Air Purification
Our practice is now using hospital-grade air filtration systems. Most conventional air purifiers are HEPA filters and may have an activated carbon filter to circulate air, remove small particulate matter and remove odors. Our new Air Purifying equipment units have upgraded filters, as well as a Germicidal UV-C chamber and a Photocatalytic Nano-TiO2 chamber, to kill bacteria and viral microorganisms such as Influenza, TB and Legionnaire’s disease as well as other harmful contaminants before returning air into circulation.
3. UVC Technology
We Make Kids Smile is also incorporating the use of hospital-grade UVC technology via a mobile UV-C room-sterilizer unit at our Waldorf location. We will use this technology throughout the practice as detailed below:
a) Treatment Rooms
Our clinic’s closed treatment rooms are where we will be performing dental procedures that generate aerosols. These rooms are therefore a high priority for our most advanced and effective infection control capabilities. Between each and every procedure in these rooms, we will spray-disinfect surfaces as detailed above. We will then follow this by running a complete cycle with our new UV-C tower unit, which will inactivate infectious particles in the air, and on surfaces, walls, ceiling, and floors. The blast of powerful UVC light, as a final measure, will further ensure a more complete room disinfection, inactivating all bacteria and viruses.
b) Other Areas
Our UV-C mobile unit will also be used in our Waldorf location to disinfect our pediatric open-bay areas, waiting room, bathroom, front office, and lounge several times daily, in addition to our usual infection control procedures for these areas.
We Make Kids Smile wants you to know that we take your health concerns very seriously. Adding these technologies and enhanced protocols helps us provide as clean and safe environment as possible for your child’s dental care. We are excited to begin reopening our office for all our patients, and look forward to seeing all our Smile Families soon!