Covid-19 Update October 2020 Smile Store

Cork, 19^th October, 2020

Dear Patients,

As you will have heard, Ireland is now in lockdown.

At Level 5, introduced as of the 20^th October 2020, you are asked to stay at home, with an exemption to attend medical appointments and to collect medicines and other health products.

As provision of dental services is considered an essential health service, Smile Store – The Dental Specialists remain open for specialist treatments (implant surgeries, periodontal treatments and orthodontics), as well as for general and urgent dental care.

While we are happy to see new patients in need of dental care and to be able to resume planned and postponed treatments, we are also cautious about the pandemic that is still not over.

In the interest of public and staff safety, following rules apply until further notice:

1. No walk-ins are allowed; only patients who have an appointment will be let into the practice.
2. Please attend your appointment by yourself. If you arrive early, you might be asked to wait outside so that we can control the number of patrons on site to allow for social distancing. Parents of our minor patients might also consider waiting outside in their cars if the circumstances so allow.
3. Anybody entering the practice must wear their own mask while outside of the treatment rooms (while waiting, on reception, etc.). You might have recently heard about supply bottlenecks around PPE and we can only source limited quantities; the limited stock we have we’ll need to use in the treatment areas. Secondly, you’ll need to wear your mask before you enter the practice, so make sure to bring your own mask.
4. Hands must be sanitised and temperatures measured when entering the practice.
5. Covid questionnaire has to be completed to check present/previous symptoms.
6. Not every treatment type is available at this stage.

While prices for PPE have gone through the roof recently, we have sourced an adequate stock and continue to source more of same. We have also implemented a set of measures to ensure patient and staff health and safety: increased diary blocks to minimize patient contact in waiting areas, installed plasma air purifiers for treatment areas, added extra single use and autoclavable protective equipment to our treatment protocols to name but a few.

Smile Store – The Dental Specialists are renowned for offering high quality dentistry at very reasonable fees. Unfortunately, the consequences of this pandemic, and the added safety measures to ensure that patients have a safe environment while being treated, all come at an additional cost. A cost that was not foreseen or calculated when developing our affordable fees schedule; a cost that we have no choice but to share with our patients. Therefore, a Covid–19 emergency fee will be added to each and every appointment going forward ranging €10 to €20 depending on treatment. A fee that is of temporary nature and will only be applied while necessary. We will be in a position to remove this fee entirely once the pandemic is over and life as well as PPE prices go back to normal.

As a dental/medical environment, we always have operated to the strictest cross-infection control protocols. Our staff now wear additional PPE of appropriate levels in all circumstances and each our surgeries and all common areas run a plasma air purifier that uses TPA ion technology to purify the air. This efficiently removes virus, fungus, germs, pollen, mite, as well as airborne odour. A dental practice is hence perhaps one of the safest places for you to be these days.

Oral health is an essential part of a person’s overall health, and attendance at your dentist should not be deferred.

We are looking forward to seeing you.

Stay safe.