This practice’s comprehensive plan includes installing storage areas to separate employee belongings, moving workstations so they’re at least six feet apart, propping office doors open so no one touches the handles and requiring patients to fill out paperwork online before their appointment. They’ve purchased two extraoral high evacuation suction units to decrease aerosol droplets as well as ultraviolet lights for HVAC units to reduce virus particles in the air. While everyone now wears N95 masks, it’s still easy for their young patients to see who they are; they all wear selfie iron-on transfers on top of their surgical masks.

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Dr. Knorr, an oral surgeon, offered a creative solution for fogging. He recently purchased Pure&Clean, HOCL 440 ppm, with a recommended 2:1 dilution for chair and counter tops. The problem? Foggers from GenEon are not available for about eight weeks, and range in price from $700 to $1,000.

His solution? Using the compressed gas outlets already in the wall. The setup cost him $2 for the correct compressed air line connector, $8 for the line pressure gauge, $20 for a sprayer and $6 for a hose, totaling $36.

“Very fine mist covers all the surfaces well,” Dr. Knorr wrote about the results. “Takes about 10 minutes drying time and should reduce the aerosol settling time and disinfection timeline required for room turnover.”

Dr. Chow outlined the changes he’s made to his practice in seven steps:

1. Fit tested N95 masks and half respirators for the team. Two Optrel Clearmaxx PAPR units.
2. Sneeze guards for the reception desk.
3. Hypochlorous acid maker and ULV fogging unit for waiting room. Hand sanitizer stations throughout the office and at the entrance.
4. Reusable gowns handmade from hair salon capes and full-face shields.
5. Three Surgically Clean Air purifiers and two Germ Guardian air purifiers.
6. The Pura Air System that is a centralized HVAC at source aerosol evacuation system my friend Dr. Wilson Kwong, the chief medical officer at Pura Air, helped develop.
7. Prescreening questionnaire and patients only in the office with the waiting room closed. Patients to wait in their vehicles and will be called into the office when an operatory is ready.

The team at Smooth Sailing put together a fun video featuring their infection control specialist as she dramatically demonstrates proper hand hygiene and how to properly wear PPE. The message is clear: Contamination is not an option.

Watch the video:

These are challenging times but coming together and sharing solutions will help us get through it. Hopefully, these ideas will help you solve a problem or inspire you to find other creative ways to keep everyone who visits your practice safe.

While these tips are great, you may be looking for more detailed guidance as you reopen your practice. We can help with that too. We recently spoke with Drs. Amanda Seay and Gary Imm about their reopening strategies—and we’re sharing their protocols and procedures with you. You can download Dr. Seay’s Protocol Guide HERE and Dr. Imm’s 4 Way Safety Systems HERE. The guides can help you safely and successfully reopen your practice.

These are challenging times but coming together and sharing solutions will help us get through it. Hopefully, these ideas and the guides from Drs Seay and Imm will help you solve a problem or inspire you to find other creative ways to keep everyone who visits your practice safe.