COVID-19 Update

To Our Valued Patients and Families of Southwest Family Dentistry:


We hope you and your family are doing well and in good health. Our community has been through a lot over the last few months, and all of us are looking forward to resuming our normal habits and routines. While many things have changed, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to your safety and well being.

We have been cleared by the Kern County Health Department to re-open our office. Infection control has always been a top priority of our practice and you may have seen this during your visits to our office. Our infection control processes have always exceeded the recommended guidelines and that when you receive care, it is both safe and comfortable. Due to COVID-19, we have taken further steps to ensure the safety of both our patients and our team members. We have appropriate PPE: N95 masks, face shields and gowns for doctors and staff to wear while seeing patients. In addition, we have installed HEPA filtration units In every room, sneeze guards at the reception areas as well as using Isolite high vacuum suction devices to reduce aerosols. In every room, we have installed Upper Air Ultraviolet Light UVC units. Throughout the day we are fogging and sterilizing patient areas with HOCL, a powerful disinfectant that is 100 times more powerful than bleach and is harmless to humans.

Our office follows infection control recommendations made by the American Dental Association (ADA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). We follow the activities of these agencies so that we are up-to-date on any new rulings or guidelines that may be issued.

You may see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to help protect our patients and staff. For example:

  • Our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. Youll be asked those same questions again when you are at the office. We will be taking temperatures of patients and staff using a non-contact thermometer. Per CDC guidelines, we will reschedule those who exhibit a fever over 100.4 degrees F, or have symptoms associated with COVID-19.

  • We have hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use when you enter the office. You will also find some in the reception area and other places in the office for you to use as needed.

  • You may see that our waiting room will no longer offer magazines, childrens toys and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect.

  • Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients.

  • We will do our best to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting times for you, as well as to reduce the number of patients in the reception area at any one time.

We look forward to seeing you again and are happy to answer any questions you may have about the steps we take to keep you, and every patient, safe in our practice. To make an appointment, please call our office at office 661-833-0101.

Thank you for being our patient. We value your trust and loyalty and look forward to welcoming back our patients, neighbors and friends.

Sincerely,


Anthony Ching, DDS and the staff at Southwest Family