**IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT**

3-31-2020 An update for our patients, the KS department of health recommended extending closure until the middle of April, which coincides with the KS governor’s state-wide stay at home order that went into effect yesterday so we are again pushing patient appointments out. If you haven’t already, you should expect a call from the staff. Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience as this continues! Hopefully we are almost through the hump!

3-23-2020 As we continue to navigate the recommendations from local, state and federal agencies, we have decided that we will suspend all patient appointments, except emergencies, for the next two weeks effective today. The staff will be calling to reschedule if you have an appointment during that time frame. After the two weeks we do plan to resume some limited patient appointments with the extra precautions that we recently implemented. According to the Kansas City metro area stay-at-home order, effective tomorrow through April 24th, we are deemed an essential healthcare service. We want to make sure our patients are receiving the same high level of care and still maintaining the extra precautions necessary while COVID-19 is active. Of course this could change as more information becomes available so please bear with us and stay connected so you have the latest information. The quickest way we will disseminate information is through our facebook page and our website. 

We also are excited to announce that we have our virtual appointment addition to our website being added as we speak! This will allow us to provide a stay-at-home option if you, our patients, need us to monitor something but can’t come to the office during this time. Once it is live we will update here!

3-17-2020 During this time as we try to navigate recommendations from the American Dental Association in conjunction with still providing our patients the opportunity to progress treatment we are limiting our schedule over the next 2-4 weeks. We are taking the Universal Precautions we have always taken with regards to infection control to protect our patients and staff, as well as taking extra precautions of more frequently disinfecting in the non-clinical areas. We are asking our patients to take the following precautions as well:

We are asking that only THE PATIENT come in the office, parents and other family members are to remain in their vehicle. Please send payment with the patient or you can call and pay over the phone.

If you have had a fever of at least 100.4°, cough, shortness of breath or traveled outside the country within the last 14 days or been exposed to anyone else that has we will re-schedule your appointment.

This will decrease the number of people in our office at one time to well under the recommended maximum of 10 people. While this limits the possibility of exposure it cannot completely eliminate it. Your presence in the office, and/or providing any patient care exposes you to the risk of transmission.

As always, if you have any concerns we are more than happy to re-schedule you to a later date. As more information becomes available we will continue to modify our plan to best serve our patients, staff and the community.

Thank you

And Smile Orthodontics