It’s officially over a year of living through the COVID-19 pandemic and having our day-to-day life drastically altered. Our office faced many unexpected challenges last year but thankfully we were able to quickly adapt to life under the “New Normal”. Join us on today’s blog as Dr. Huang discusses how she and her team overcame setbacks and stayed positive through it all!



The biggest challenge we faced was the staff and patients' initial anxiety of coming back to the office. To ease this worry, our team implemented many new safety protocols. Throughout the reopening process the team was able to stay positive and work together efficiently. From this, we've seen stronger teamwork, dedication, and support from everyone. Since the reopening, we've successfully implemented many safety protocols to keep both our staff and patients safe. We're proud to say we haven’t had any positive cases among the team so far. We have safely treated patients since May 2020.

We do have a rigorous screening process for both staff and patients to rule out any positive cases coming through the door. Some of our new safety procedures include adopting paperless administration, patients waiting in their car until their appointment time, temperature measuring, and hand sanitizing upon entering. For appointments we’ve implemented pre-procedure rinse, use of intra-oral and extra-oral suctions, and air disinfection with air filter and hydrochloric acid. Please see our previous blog for more details.

All patients are informed and kept up-to-date on the new process of checking in and the screening questionnaires. We ask all patients to check their temperature the day before. For additionally information about patient pre-screening we’ve put together a video for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLtNayCC_Ng&ab_channel=Live%26SmileDental%26Orthodontics

Through all these unexpected challenges COVID-19 presented us we learned to brainstorm quickly, network, and be supportive of one another during such an unprecedented time. Lately, we are more focused on office culture and fostering a positive and supportive working environment. During these times of uncertainty, we try to approach each situation as an opportunity to grow, to learn, and to thrive. Challenges and difficulties are our opportunities to reflect, recharge, and restart.

During such a strange and anxious time, It's very important to manage stress and practice self-care. We encourage the team to take breaks to drink water, take deep breaths, or walk around in the sun during the work day. After work, the team is advised to have a regular sleep and exercise schedule, take time to relax, enjoy their hobbies, spend time with family and friends.

Though the pandemic holds so much fear and uncertainty for us, there are many positive things we’ve learned from the pandemic and we recognize that we truly have so much to be grateful for! We can be happy and grateful regardless of our outward situations. We feel blessed to have a wonderful team working together to help our patients live a better life with a healthier and more beautiful smile. The pandemic taught us to slow down, reflect on our priorities, focus on health and relationships, etc.

We hope everyone has a safe and fun spring season! We can’t wait to see you in our office again soon.