Dr. Mustafa Alkhawaja, DDS

We hope this letter finds you well! We know it's been difficult for everyone during this challenging time, and we just wanted to let you know that we haven't forgotten about you! We've been open but only seeing emergency patients during the last 8 weeks, as was mandated by the Governor of Illinois and the Illinois Department of Public Health.

As of May 11, 2020, we have been given the green light to reopen for routine dental care. During the last couple months, as we've been seeing emergencies, we have been making daily adjustments to our protocols to ensure they are meeting and exceeding the guidelines given to us from the American Dental Association (ADA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH). Research is ongoing, and we are prepared to adopt new guidelines as evidence emerges. We are thrilled to be opening our doors again to all of our existing patients, and we look forward to welcoming new patients to the practice as well. To give us time to acquire the necessary supplies and implement changes, we will be fully open as of June 1, 2020 for routine dental care.

We have implemented a number of new protocols in addition to our already rigorous infection-control standards:

• All patients will be screened prior to their appointment with a CDC-approved questionnaire.
• We will be asking you to stay in your car until you are sent a message to come in for your appointment.
• We will be asking you to wear a mask before you enter the office; this goes for minor children as well.
• We will ask you to use hand sanitizer once you enter, and will provide you with gloves to put on afterward.
• We will be limiting the number of people in the waiting room to 1 individual at a time, unless a parent needs to accompany a minor. Once a minor child is brought back for treatment, we will be asking the parent to return to their car to wait until treatment is complete.
• We will be taking temperatures before you enter the treatment area.
• We will have you rinse with an antimicrobial mouth rinse after you are seated.
• We have implemented additional air purification standards to reduce aerosols and contaminants in the whole office.
• You will see the staff wearing more Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) than we were wearing before. This is not just for the protection of the staff, but also to prevent cross-contamination to the patient.

We are requesting that you be patient with us during this time. We will all be adapting to a new normal, and that can be frustrating for everyone involved. Appointment times will take approximately 20-30 minutes longer than previously, to allow us the time needed to effectively implement the changes we talked about above. We would not recommend scheduling your appointments on days where you have a very tight schedule to maintain, as there may be unexpected delays.

We can't wait to get back to the work of getting you smiling again!

Thank you!
Your Team at Optima Dental Associates