June 2, 2020
Dear Friends and Family of Patients, 

After 10 weeks of limitations, restrictions, and a huge amount of upheaval, we are very excited to welcome you all back to the office! We hope that you are happy and well. 
Starting Monday, June 1, 2020, we are once again able to offer the full-range of dental services that we last provided on March 17, 2020. As before, delivering exceptional care in a safe, friendly, and comfortable environment will continue to be our top priority, but given the recommendations of the CDC, OSHA, FDA, the American Dental Association, Vermont Department of Health, Governor Phil Scott, and others, that care might look and feel a bit different. 

What stays the same? 

1. Commitment to exceptional clinical care.
2. We are incredibly fortunate to live, work, and play right here. I couldn’t think of a better place to have spent the last (13 years and) 10 weeks dwelling on what might have been and dreaming of what’s to come. We live in a community of makers, weavers, and tailors who continually mend, improve, and reinvent the fabric that holds us together; who do things “for and with” instead of “to and against”; who understand that at this moment in history community and social distancing are two sides of the same coin; who provide for ourselves by providing for others, etc. etc. I have great faith in these ideals and the people of our community who turn them into practice.
3. Universal safety precautions: sterilization, single use items, surface disinfection, barrier protection, commitment of all team members to abide by infection control protocols, etc.
4. Beautiful, comfortable office space.
5. Clinical and administrative team members: Dr. Knott, Jayne, Jenn, Suzanne, Casey, and Julia.
6. We are honored by, deeply value, and continue to need your referrals of friends and family. We love working with more patients just like you!
7. We’re eager to help you with your dental needs, wants, and aspirations. 

What changes? (These changes are brought to you in part by those organizations listed above, but we’ve gone above and beyond in many areas to ensure your safety and that of our team members.) 

1. Before anyone enters the office we’ll be asking you to follow a new protocol to help reduce the risk of community infection
2. In order to minimize the number of people that you encounter while you’re at the office: 

a. Your car, motorcycle, or bicycle will be your new reception area. We’ll be calling you up for care when our clinical team members are ready to seat you
b. Office forms will be transitioned to an on-line portal so that you can complete them from home
c. Appointment times may be a bit different from what you’re accustomed to.

3. Visitors, delivery personnel, sales people, etc. are not allowed into the office unless absolutely necessary.
4. Longer phone calls with Jayne and Jenn.
5. Hand sanitizers will be more widely available for patient use. And we insist that you use it.
6. We ask that you wear a face covering. Please wear a mask, bandana, or scarf that covers your mouth and nose into the building and during your appointment. Please lower it only after being asked to do so.
7. Some new faces. TBD.
8. Team members will be wearing more PPE: isolation gowns, surgical caps, N95 and surgical masks, full face shields, etc.
9. Treatment rooms will have state-of-the-art hyper-HEPA filtration units that will filter all the air in each treatment room every 5 to 7 minutes.
10. We’re installing new rooftop HVAC units that will filter and UV treat all air that moves through them before fresh air is supplied to the office. All air in the office will be refreshed every 10 minutes.
11. Our beautiful reception area will be off limits. 

Since March 17, we’ve provided urgent and emergent care to a number of you. Last week we completed 5 hours of training to get all team members up to speed on the new infection prevention and PPE protocols. Last week we also saw a limited number of patients for exams, simple restorative treatment, and basic hygiene services. These steps were taken so that we can internalize all of the new processes so that we can focus on you, our family of patients, when we see you again. Which we hope will be real soon! 

If you have further questions, please send them to frontdesk@woodstockdentistry.com or call us at 802-457-2922. 

Be well. We look forward to seeing you again soon, 

Mark D. Knott, DDS, MAGD and our team