Health & Safety
NEW COVID-19 PROTOCOLS (effective May 5, 2020)
Effective immediately, we will be re-opening our doors as allowed by the Alberta Dental Association and College (for URGENT & EMERGENCY CARE of our patients). We have new precautions in place to ensure the safety of our patience and staff.
Our New protocols are listed below. Please call 403-263-7779 if you have any questions
- A member of our dental team will contact you, informing you of your upcoming dental appt. You will be asked a series of questions that are required by Alberta Health Services.
- We will be emailing you a Pandemic Emergency Dental Treatment consent form.
- Once you arrive in the office for your appointment, DO NOT COME IN. First, please call our office at 403-263-7779 to inform us you have arrived and waiting in the parking lot. We will let you know when you can enter the building.
- NO additional family members will be allowed in the office to accompany you for your appointment. If you must accompany your child, ONE guardian is allowed to come in. Please make every effort possible not to bring siblings to the office.
- You will be required to use hand sanitizer upon entering or wash your hands.
- Your forehead temperature will be taken when you enter the office. Only patients with a temperature of less than 38 degrees will be allowed to proceed with appointments.
- Once seated in the dental chair, you will be given a Hydrogen peroxide rinse before any dental treatment.
- As required by the Government of Alberta, we will continue to practice social distancing. Please be aware of your surroundings and keep 2 meters away from other people in the office.
- Our staff will be taking extra precautions as required by Alberta dental Association and wearing the recommended PPE.
How we Handle Your Health & Safety
At Hillhurst Dental, as an NW Calgary Dentist located on 14th Street NW, your health and safety are of utmost concern to us. In our practice, we are proud of our sterilization and infection control procedures. Today, more than ever, people have questions about the risk of infection when they visit a health care practitioner of any kind.
We are as concerned about our hygienic standards & sterilization procedures as you are and ensure that yours is a safe and stringently clean dental visit. It is our goal to always exceed the Alberta Dental Association and Canadian Dental Association safety and sterilization guidelines with hospital grade sterilization equipment.
Besides our hospital grade sterilization process, our practitioners and hygienists wear gloves, masks and protective eye-wear as a protective barrier. Anything that goes into the patient’s mouth is either used only once and disposed of, or it is sterilized in our state of the art sterilization lab.
Sterilization Processes We Use:
- Autoclave (pressurized steam): All dental instruments and handpieces (drills) are sterilized in a high-pressure steam autoclave after each use. This process is the standard of care. Our computerized autoclave warns us in the event of an incomplete sterilization cycle and we have protocols in place to correct such issues immediately. As an added precaution, we also use an external biological indicator test to ensure that our autoclave is functioning properly and producing sterile instruments.
- Surface Decontamination: All surfaces including countertops, dental chairs, stools, light handles and control buttons are disinfected with chemical solutions before and after every patient. These solutions are not only formulated to eliminate infectious bacteria and viruses that could otherwise proliferate on these surfaces, but the chemicals themselves pose no health threat to our patients.
- Disposable Items: Many of the items we use today are discarded after a single-use. These items include saliva ejectors, high-speed suction tips, drinking cups, rubber cleaning cups, patient bibs, tray covers, sterilization bags, mixing pads, mixing tips, anesthetic carpules and needle tips, among others. Gloves and masks are also discarded after each use.
If you have any questions about any of our dental health and safety procedures,
please do not hesitate to ask us at your next visit!