To all of our wonderful patient families,

We are happy to be allowed to resume routine and non-emergent dental care for your children.  We are excited and grateful to have the opportunity to serve you again.  We hope you all are well and enjoying the beautiful spring weather we have had.  Over the next few weeks we will be calling to reschedule everyone who missed their routine checkups and non-emergent treatment, confirming appointment times and adjusting the length of current appointments so we are able to follow CDC guidelines on social distancing.  Please, do not hesitate to call us if your children need an appointment and you haven’t heard from us.   We will make these changes as gracefully and efficiently as we can, taking the changing mandates and protocols into consideration.

COVID-19 has affected every aspect of our lives including how dentistry is now delivered.  Please be patient with us as we navigate this new world.  For your children’s safety and the safety of our doctors and staff, appointments may take longer and more time will be set aside between each appointment to accommodate for social distancing, and increased cleaning and sterilization in the office.  We have added additional procedures and protocols to the Universal Precautions already in place and are continuously monitoring OSHA, CDC, and American Dental Association recommendations.  The staff and doctors have all been pre-screened before returning to work and will continue to be screened during this time.  We thought it would it would be helpful for you to know what to expect before your child/children’s appointments:

Before your appointment:

• Please review the COVID-19 screening questions below before each appointment.  If you have to answer “yes” to any of the screening questions, we ask you call to reschedule their appointment.
• To help limit the number of people in the office, we ask that you do not bring siblings or additional family members that do not have appointments.
• Orthodontic patients: please have the patient brush before the appointment
• Please let us know if insurance has changed since your last visit. For some, the last appointment was in September or October of 2019, so keep that in mind.  We have so much going on right now, verifying your insurance benefits on the day of is very difficult.
• Please try and arrive on time as we are trying to space everyone out

When you arrive:

• Call the office to let us know the patient has arrived (713-360-6432) and which number parking spot you are parked.
• Let us know you have reviewed the screening questions
• A staff member will come out to take the patient when their treatment area is ready. The patient and any adult entering with them will have their temperature taken.
• If the child and parent are comfortable, we ask that only the patient come in for their appointment. Certainly, we are not asking this of the younger and more nervous patients but, if they can handle it, we ask you allow them to come inside for their checkup/treatment by themselves.
• We are keeping families together in the same room or treatment area. This can extend the length of some appointments.
• Adults, please wear a mask if you are entering the building.
• Let your children know we have put away the toys and balloons for now. We do have stickers that the staff can hand them.  It’s our favorite part too and we hope to be able to reward them soon!

We ask that if the patient or parent becomes symptomatic within 7 days after seeing us that you please let us know.  We will keep your identity strictly confidential.

We are very much looking forward  to help optimize the oral health of your children.  We all know schedules and diets have been more lax than usual (our homes included).  Taking this time to ensure the oral health of your children is still in good standing is important.  We are still firm believers that preventing cavities is easier than fixing them!

See you all very soon!

In health and with gratitude,

Dr. Longoria, Dr. Chen, Dr. Archidiacono, & Dr. McCarty