Our world abruptly changed with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, and we have all continued to face its repercussions in the time that has followed. We opened the doors to Integrity Dental in January 2021, while the pandemic was still at its height, and we took to heart our role in helping to protect those within our community and surrounding communities.

 

In a sense, dentistry was already well ahead of the curve and very well-prepared for the pandemic, since it was already standard practice pre-pandemic to follow very stringent infection control practices to prevent the spread of infections within the dental office. Most of these routine practices went unseen by patients in the past, but became more apparent with the onset of the pandemic and the general public's heightened awareness of the importance of infection control in everyday life. We took these already stringent infection control practices even farther, adding our own measures to better support the safety of our community and our staff. These additional measures were many, but included:

 

• Pre-screening of every patient prior to every appointment to ensure each patient was as low-risk and as healthy as possible before entering our office

​

• Prohibiting guests or visitors from entering our office without a previously reserved appointment or pre-screening

​

• Limiting the number of people in our office at any given time and limiting our schedule to see only one patient at a time

​

• Asking everyone entering our office to wear a mask at all times unless actively undergoing treatment

​

• Requiring our team to wear masks with the highest filtration levels at all times while in the office. This included wearing masks all day, every day, with the exception of short breaks to rest our often sore and tired ears! It definitely wasn't fun or easy, but we did what we believed was best to protect our patients, ourselves, and those we interacted with outside of the office.

​

• Employing various methods of air filtration to better contain aerosols and prevent their spread within the office. Our Isodry mouthpiece, which we aptly refer to as our "fancy suction" or "tooth pillow," helped directly capture aerosols during procedures before they had a chance to escape the operating field. Additionally, we employed high performance air filtration in each treatment room to continually purify the air within the office.

​

• Dedicating additional time in between each patient to allow for even more thorough disinfection of all treatment areas

​

In taking the pandemic very seriously, we can proudly say that, to date, our practice has not directly experienced a single case of COVID or any of its variants. We hope to maintain this record moving forward. We will continue to adapt our policies and protocols as needed as time moves on and we continue adapting to COVID and its variants, and as we continue to closely monitor both state and federal guidelines. Please contact our office directly for the most current information on our ongoing policies and protocols.

​

We continue to ask all of our patients to only present to our office if you have a reserved appointment. All other inquiries can be made either by phone or through email. Please avoid bringing any guests into the office unless absolutely necessary (i.e. if accompanied by a caretaker or guardian). If you are a parent and may be accompanied by children, please make childcare arrangements whenever possible. Please do not present for your reserved appointment if you are feeling ill or are experiencing symptoms of COVID, or if you have been in close contact with someone with COVID-like symptoms or someone who has tested positive for COVID within the last 14 days preceding your reserved appointment. Please wear a mask at all times while in the office, except when asked by a clinical team member to remove your mask so that care can be rendered.

​

As always, please do not hesitate to call or email us directly with any questions or concerns, or if you or a loved one are feeling unwell and are unsure of whether or not it is safe for you to come to your reserved appointment. Rest assured we will never penalize you for needing to reschedule an appointment if doing so means helping to keep others safe and healthy.

​

A huge thank-you to each and every one of our patients for their continued cooperation and support, and for helping us to remain one of the safest and healthiest dental offices in the state of Maine!