Dear ,

Our community has been through a lot over the last few months, and all of us are looking forward to resuming our normal habits and routines. We will open for elective operative appointments with Dr. Kirk on May 26th, and will resume cleaning appointments on June 1st.

If you have a scheduled appointment, we may still contact you to reschedule based on staff availability and PPE availability. If your appointment was cancelled in the past few months, our office will contact you to reschedule as soon as we are able.

We ask for your continued patience, as we have over 500 appointments to reschedule; we will do our best to accommodate requests for certain appointment times and days, but it will be very busy for the next few months and we may not have the appointment day or time you need for a while.

While many things have changed, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to your safety. Infection control has always been a top priority for our practice and you may have seen this during your visits to our office. Our infection control processes are made so that when you receive care, it’s both safe and comfortable. We want to tell you about the infection control procedures we follow in our practice to keep patients and staff safe.

Our office follows infection control recommendations made by the American Dental Association (ADA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). We follow the activities of these agencies so that we are up-to-date on any new rulings or guidance that may be issued.

IMPORTANT: If you are infected with COVID-19 or think you may have been infected, please contact us in advance before coming in. This way we can instruct you on where to go and how to proceed for the safety of all.

You may see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to help protect our patients and staff. For example:

• Our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. You’ll be asked those same questions again when you are in the office.
• Our waiting room is "closed" at this time to protect our patients. We ask that patients only come to the office if they have a scheduled appointment, and we ask that any individuals accompanying patients remain in their vehicles.
• Our waiting room will no longer offer magazines, children’s toys and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect.
• We will only accept payments over the phone, via secure text message, or through the mail. We will soon have a drop box for payments next to our front door that can be utilized 24 hours a day.
• We have hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use when you enter the office. You will also find some in the reception area and other places in the office for you to use as needed.
• Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you’re offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment.
• We will do our best to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting times for you, as well as to reduce the number of patients in the reception area at any one time.

We look forward to seeing you again and are happy to answer any questions you may have about the steps we take to keep you, and every patient, safe in our practice. To make an appointment, please call or text our office at (309)764-5135.

Thank you for being our patient. We value your trust and loyalty and look forward to welcoming back our patients, neighbors and friends.

Sincerely,

Dr. Kirk Hansen and the Hansen Family Dentistry Team