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Message from Dr. Andrew Godzyk and Team:

To our patients, and patient’s families:
As I am sure you have heard, ALL dental procedures other than emergency care are prohibited by mandate from Governor Brown. Emergency procedures allowed are restricted to the treatment of pain, infection or swelling. Any treatment procedure that is reversible is to be delayed to a later date, after June 15th, 2020. Further, dentists are mandated to surrender our gloves, masks, glasses, known as personal protective equipment (PPE), to the state for first line use to combat the equipment short falls present in the hospitals and first responder settings.

With this in mind, our office is committed to providing emergency care to our patients. If you are experiencing any of the above emergency issues, as always, call our office. We will either be open or have a message for a contact number to call to speak to me, or a staff member, to triage the patient and determine a course of action. As mandated, our response may be limited in nature to make the patient comfortable with additional procedures to restore treatment progression rescheduled to a later date. We may also attempt to home remedy the issue for the patient to avoid direct in office visits.

For the majority of our orthodontic patients this unfortunate situation will have some mild interruption to their treatment. The nature of orthodontic treatment is slow and steady progress over several months, if not years. Progression of treatment in most cases can continue, although the rate of treatment progression may slow or stop, until routine appointments and adjustments can resume after June 15th. For some, there can be a risk of too much movement occurring resulting in tooth movements beyond those required for treatment, but this effect would still be self-limiting and not result in irreparable movement.

Please be diligent in your tooth brushing and flossing to keep the mouth impeccably clean. We cannot monitor oral hygiene during this time and excellent tooth brushing and flossing will reduce risks of infections that could lead to emergency care. If you care for a minor, please actively provide a visual check of their home care and ask them to repeat brushing until all appliances and surfaces visible to you are spotless.

Be careful to avoid breaking or loosening of our orthodontic appliances. As instructed at the start of treatment, hard, sticky, and sugary foods should be eliminated. This is especially important during this time because a loose brace from eating hard foods does not constitute an emergency appointment. If this situation leads to pain, we can only remove the loose item and not replace it which can impact our forward treatment progression and increase the likelihood of regression in treatment.

Please know that we will do are best to care for your patients.  We will reschedule patients as soon as we are able to see to.  Thank you for your continued patience.  Stay healthy and safe.

Sincerely,
Dr. Andrew Godzyk and Team

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