Arnold Smiles (General Dentistry)

We’ve had a busy few months reopening and installing all of our new air quality systems. Our surgically clean air jade units have been installed in all treatment rooms, and our cascade unit that’s the size of a refrigerator has been installed in the center of the office. We have extra-oral suction units and also have fitted all of our hvac systems with the i-wave ionizers. As always, your safety and the safety of our team is our top priority!

Update: We are tentatively planning to reopen for routine care Monday May 18th. It looks like we will have the equipment and PPE we need by then. We will continue to monitor the Covid-19 situation and advisories for dentists. In Jefferson County we were allowed to open this week. We chose not to because we didn’t have our new filtration system yet and because we are so close to St Louis County we felt we should wait. I will post more details as we get closer to opening about all the cool stuff we are doing and new streamlined protocols. We are excited to get back in the office and serve our patients.... and I just wanted to share that we are getting close!!!!!

My professional essay was published this morning. I wrote this Monday morning just to collect my thoughts and share what I’m going through as a dentist and business owner. Thanks to my dear friend and amazing hygienist Christina Lindberg for encouraging me to submit it for publication https://www.smerconish.com//5/1/a-dentists-covid-19-dilemma

Covid 19 Update: I want to take a moment to let everyone know what our plan is for reopening. The American Dental Association has given some guidance on r...esuming routine dental care. Ultimately they are leaving it up to each doctor’s professional judgement on how to return to the new normal. They have recommended things like temperature checks and social distancing in the waiting room. In my professional opinion this is not enough. We have invested in a surgically clean air filtration system for the office that is due to arrive sometime in May. In addition we have invested in extra-oral suctions to capture aerosol as it’s produced that will be positioned next to treatment chairs. I hope that our patients trust us and understand why we are not rushing to reopen routine care. Our goal is always to provide the highest level of treatment in a safe and caring environment. Our team is like family to me and we decided together this is what we want to do. I want them safe. My family all comes to the office for dental care. I want them safe. I feel like our patients are like family, and I hope you understand that your safety comes first. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new equipment and of course we are anxious to return to patient care. It’s what we do! We are still providing emergency care for anyone with urgent needs. Unfortunately I don’t have a firm date for when we will reopen, but just know that we are working on it. A tremendous amount of time has been put into learning about this and we have made a significant financial investment in new equipment. As equipment starts to arrive we will slowly start reopening. I am hopeful we can be back to our new normal by June 1 or before. Thank you for your understanding. Sincerely, Erin Mariscal, DDS/Arnold Smiles See more