Your Safety Is Our Top Priority
At North Asheville Family Dentistry, your health & safety is our top priority. We do everything we can to make sure our office is as clean & sterile as possible, so you don’t have to worry about getting sick at your appointment. Especially during times of greater health concerns, you can leave your worry at the door & focus on your dental health. It’s important to us that nothing gets in the way of providing high-quality, personalized care to each of our patients.
Sterilization
Further Heightened Sterilization Standards
It’s common sense that a medical facility like a dental office would have procedures in place to make sure the office is clean for patients & staff. We are proud to exceed the standards of the Centers for Disease Control as we make patient safety & office sterilization our top priorities.
Our dental implements are thoroughly cleaned & sterilized before each use & we make certain there is no contamination possible. More than simply using soap & water, we sterilize our dental instruments using steam in a machine called an autoclave. The tools are subjected to high enough heat to kill any bacteria or viruses that may have been transferred to the tool during use.
Wherever we can, we use disposable materials & barriers that we throw away after each use, eliminating the need to sterilize them.
Personal Protective Measures
Our dentists, hygienists & dental assistants keep themselves clean & wear all standard personal protective equipment to make certain our patients remain safe. This equipment includes gloves, eyewear & masks & is all single-use, discarded after each patient. Our clothing is professionally cleaned so our team members can have a fresh outfit each day. If their clothing gets soiled during their shift, we keep extra clean clothing for them to change into as needed.
Disinfection Procedures
There are many rooms in a dental office that are used by both patients & staff. In addition to regular office cleaning done outside our office hours, we take special care to disinfect surfaces touched by patients & staff in the well-traveled rooms. Several times a day, we go through each room & wipe down frequently touched surfaces using medical-grade disinfectants, including countertops, tables, doorknobs, cabinets, sinks & restrooms.
Filtered Water Lines
It’s important in any dental office that the water used to rinse our patients’ mouths is clean & free of harmful bacteria. Our water lines are filtered to get rid of bacteria & microorganisms that would not pose a threat to healthy patients, but might be more dangerous to older patients or those with compromised immune systems.
We regularly monitor the levels of bacteria in our water lines & follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for cleaning out our system to make sure it is functioning like new.
A Team Effort
Keeping our patients safe & healthy takes the whole team, & we each do everything we can to maintain high standards. In addition to the precautions above, our team members stay out of the office when they are feeling unwell, & we ask that our patients do the same—for the health & well-being of our community.
If you have any questions about our procedures or would like to talk about making special accommodations, please call us.