To Our Family of Patients:
Recently the Governor of Massachusetts has pushed back the reopening date to May 18th and the Governor of Connecticut has extended their date to May 20th. While dental offices are considered “essential” businesses, all of the dental offices in these states are trying to comply with this order so that PPE can be preserved for frontline healthcare providers fighting COVID-19. Therefore, with the exception of emergencies, our offices will stay closed until then. Our Westfield office plans to reopen on May 18th and our Enfield office will reopen on May 20th. If you do have an emergency, PLEASE call any of our offices. Heather and Stephanie are receiving calls while working from home and will contact me.

Also, when we do reopen, you will have a very different experience with our office since we are implementing protocols to further enhance disinfection and promote patient safety. There will be plexiglass shields at the front desk between yourself and the ladies at the desk. We will be limiting seating in the reception areas, asking that only the patient come in and the families remain in the car. If a parent or guardian feels that they must accompany the patient or if we require your presence, we will ask that only one person do so. If the patient has a mask, we urge them to wear it while in the office and remove it only at the time we begin actual treatment. (If your child feels awkward about wearing one, tell them “everyone is doing it.” We are too and they will fit right in!) When the patient comes in, we will be taking their temperature with an infrared forehead thermometer scan and then having them wash their hands.

Additionally, you will see that our staff has a “new look.” Gone are the tie dye shirts and they have been replaced with scrubs, gowns, double masks and face shields. (But yes, I am holding fast to my orange Crocs!) We are disinfecting the high touch points in the office throughout the day and will be fogging the office at night with hospital-grade disinfectant.

While in orthodontics, we generally are dealing with a healthy, younger population, all of these measures are out of an abundance of caution to keep everyone safe. Through it all, we will be engaging the patients in conversation, laughing with them and making all of these measures seem not so scary.

I am looking forward to seeing all of you back in our offices and sharing stories about what you have been doing (or not doing) and getting back to working on your smiles! Until then, Stay Safe, Chin Up, Smile and God Bless.

Dave Cordes

Following guidance from the President’s COVID-19 Task Force, and the Governor of the state of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Dental Society has strongly requested that all dental offices postpone non-urgent office visits until May 4th. Currently the Governor of Connecticut is requesting that dental offices stay closed until April 22nd. At the time of this writing, we expect that Connecticut may extend that deadline to be in line with neighboring Massachusetts and the President’s request of early May. Therefore, all of our offices will plan to reopen together on May 4th unless statewide restrictions are lifted early or extended. Everyone should receive a call or email with a new appointment in the next few days. We will have a stand-by assistant for all offices to handle emergencies by appointment, and Dr. Cordes is available as well.

Heather and Stephanie will still be available by email and by phone during regular office hours to handle questions or concerns. Everyone that we have reached out to the first time around to move appointments has been VERY understanding. THANK YOU! When we are allowed to reopen we will be extending office hours and also seeing patients on days we normally would have been closed in order to accommodate people.

I miss all of the people that come into our office. I miss your stories of how your day is going, the smiling faces and my staff which is like part of my family.

See you soon,

Dave Cordes