 Hello everybody, Andrew Maeski here with Dental Elf. Please excuse the mess behind me. My puppy is in the office with me today, so she's just hanging out, but okay guys, so let's talk about how you should be preparing your patients for your return back to work because trust me, patients are going to have questions. If they haven't been asking you questions yet, they will be even before they book an appointment and just to make people feel as comfortable as possible, it's best to really talk about these things now, so then they don't have to worry about it. They don't have to wonder and when people start to ask them questions, then they will have a much better idea. So what I have been doing is I have a group on Facebook where I have been updating patients even just doing a simple post such as I can't wait to see everybody when we return back to work. If you have any questions about your oral health, please just let me know. I was even posting about teeth whitening kits. If people want to whiten their teeth at home, just to get them something to get excited about summertime. So I have been updating patients, but in regards to COVID, I have been posting about I did order some thermometers, I did order some face shields, lab coats, all of that. I just simply take a picture. I took a picture of me wearing a lab coat, my loops, my face shield, you know, just so they can kind of see to what I'm going to look like when I return back to work, because gone are the days, at least for now, of me wearing a short sleeve scrub top, no mask, no loops when I see them, you know, putting all of that on afterwards. But now things are going to be changing where I will likely be wearing all of those things, even before they see me. So especially for patients who haven't seen me before, they're not even going to know what I look like, technically, because I will be having the mask on, the face shield, the loops, a full on lab coat to completely protect me. So it is a good idea to take pictures, okay, take pictures. It's not just about taking selfies, you're on social media, but it's about letting patients know that you are on the ball, that you are ordering things that you have to order, you are serious about proper PPE, and their safety and your safety as well. I've, I've also been taking pictures of the cert certificates of courses that I've been taking. So they know that I'm not just sitting here doing nothing, but I'm taking courses to really make them feel safe as possible. And for me to know what to do when we return back to work. So keep them in the loop. That's marketing right there, you guys, because there are patients who can't wait to get on the phone, call you because they've had two fakes, but they might not have considered it an emergency. So they don't know what to do. They're probably thinking, Oh my goodness, I needed a cleaning like two months ago, I cannot wait to get in there to clean my teeth. Your phone will probably be ringing off the hook. But you also need to prepare them in another way. So for your dental practice, let them know things like what to expect before your appointment. These are the questions we are going to ask you to ensure your safety. We will be taking your temperature. Hopefully you can take your temperature at home. Also, we will be having you wait in your car until it's your turn to come in. Don't touch anything, you know, you will be using hand sanitizer when you come in, you know, things like that. Let them know what to expect. Let them know things that you are, you are only seeing one patient every three hours because the CDC says that those aerosols can remain in the in the air for three hours. And you know that because you've been paying attention. So you are seeing one patient every three hours. They will like to hear that because they will be thinking, oh, okay, wonderful. So that's an even lesser chance of me potentially getting infected from somebody else. Because people can lie to you, even if you ask them, do you have any symptoms? How do you feel? Do you feel sick? And they they might not even be, you know, not being truthful on purpose, but they might not have any symptoms yet two weeks later, or, you know, three days later, they might all of a sudden have symptoms. So you don't know. I suggest everybody update their consent forms so that you have something in there saying it's not our responsibility if you do get COVID. If something happens because nobody can prove that it came from this dental office, you know, have something in there saying that you are monitoring staff every single day. So if they're sick, they have a temperature, they will be sent home, you know, let them know that you are doing everything that you possibly can, even list everything new that you are doing in that consent form so that they can read through everything once again, because they might not be active on social media. So they might not have seen all of your posts, have them read through everything so then that can help them as much as possible. That's what I intend to do. And just keep letting them know if anybody has any questions, please let us know. We are here to help you. This is new for everybody, but we have to work through this. We are coming back with proper PP, all of that make everybody as safe as possible, but to also take care of their oral health because oral health is so important for overall health. So they need to know that too that this isn't just, you know, them getting a haircut or just them doing something. This is really taking care of them. So definitely do that. I would even suggest reaching out to all of your peer patients. I did that. Now I'm a mobile dental hygienist for the past year and a half. So I don't have thousands of patients. I have 177 I believe I had counted I had reached out to all of them actually, about a month ago saying hi. I'm sure you've been hearing what's been happening in the news. How could you not? If you had an appointment book with me that is obviously canceled, I will let you know when we do open back up again. But how can I help you? How how how are you doing? Do you have any questions about your teeth, your kids teeth, any toothpaste questions like which toothpaste to you, you know, anything? I am here to help. So I did reach out to every single person. So they can kind of keep me in their mind too. And every single person said, Oh, wow, thank you so much. A lot of them said, actually, I do have a question, you know, so we just sort of helped, helped each other with that. And so that way they know that I'm paying attention that I'm being careful. And when we do go back to work, everybody will be as safe as possible. What else you guys I'm just checking my notes. So I did mention to let them know also like what you're doing at that appointment, let them know that they will be having to rinse with a pre procedural rinse of 1.5% hydrogen peroxide. I suggest actually updating everybody's medical history as well. If there's anything in there medically where their lungs could be affected or something like that, you probably shouldn't see them yet. Something like that. Let them know the appointment might take longer because you will only be doing hand scaling for hygiene. Let them know, you know, just things like that, like let them know how the appointment will go. I plan to tell patients it's probably going to take longer if you have the time. If you don't have the time, it might take two separate appointments to clean the whole mouth because I can't use that instrument that sprays out the water because that will create too much aerosols and things like that and we're not allowed to use those at this time. So just let them know. Let them know what to expect. Let them know what you're going to do and then also how you are preparing, how you also disinfect the room, how you are sterilizing everything. Even take a video of just, you know, how your staff look with all of their PPE on, how they're going through sterilizing everything, how they're disinfecting everything. We have, we have always done that, but patients haven't necessarily cared as much as they do now. So let me know, you guys, if you have any questions, thank you so much for watching and I will see you guys in the next one.