Dear Friends and Family:

I suppose none of us should be surprised that things have changed dramatically since  the last message I sent out on Saturday.  Our governing body, the RCDS (Royal College of Dental Surgeons), as well as the medical governing body (the OMA) have mandated that we only see patients for essential services.  This is a vague direction.  Our office will continue to see patients who are in pain, have infections, and need immediate treatment. Patients who are scheduled for fillings that involve deep decay will be seen.  Patients who have temporary crowns will be seen.  All others, including regular hygiene patients will be rescheduled to a later date.

Everyone who has an appointment scheduled over the next TWO weeks will be getting a call from our office within the next 36 hours as to what arrangements will be made for your visit.

Anyone who has an EMERGENCY can call Dr. Pasternak directly at 416-712-7001.

I thank you all for your patience during these extremely difficult times.

I am including all of the information we have on the virus, including information points of access.  This information was included in the Saturday email.

The vast majority of patients who contract the illness will recover with only mild symptoms.

The greatest risks appear to be to people over the age of 65.

Symptoms may take up to 14 days to appear after exposure to COVID-19. This is the longest known infectious period for this disease.

It is believed at this point that you can't contract the illness by exposure to someone who exhibits no symptoms.

Toilet paper will continue to be available.

Water will continue to come out of our taps.

Symptoms include:

• fever
• cough
• difficulty breathing
• pneumonia in both lungs

If you exhibit any symptoms at all, you can call the Ontario Public Health Authority at 1-866-797-0000.

All of this information (except the toilet paper and water) comes from Health Canada.

I encourage everyone to visit the Health Canada website (https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection/symptoms.html) or the CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html) for your information.  Everywhere else is unreliable and possibly irresponsible (see Fox News).

What are we doing in our office:

Firstly, please be reassured that our office (as all medical and dental offices) have always followed IPAC guidelines (https://ipac-canada.org/) in our office.  This means our office is one of the safest places you can be (it is safer for me to be in my office than my home).

Having said this, we are taking additional steps to protect ourselves and our patients and the community at large:

We are doing a telephone screen of patients due in the office.  We are asking patients who have been out of the country (even the USA) not to come to the office for two weeks.  We are asking patients who exhibit any flu like symptoms not to come to the office. 

Three of our staff are returning from vacations this week and will be in self quarantine for 2 weeks.

We have signs posted outside the office entrances reiterating this and ask all incoming patients to please review the information before entering.

We have hand sanitizers and masks available at the front desk.

My personal experience so far in the public is that people are scared, which is a normal human reaction to widespread uncertainty, but so far have not lost their sense of humour.  People also want to feel that we are in this together, which I think is reassuring.

I wish everyone and their friends and families only good health.  And remember, we are here to help, so reach out to us with any questions you may have.  Anyone can contact me directly through email at,

dr.pasternak@etobicokedentalcare.com

Sincerely,

Dr. Mark Pasternak

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