UPDATE ON COVID-19

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16th July, 2021

Dear Patients, Families and Friends of Somerville Dental Health,

In response to the Victorian Government’s announcement of the 5-day lockdown effective as of 11:59pm 15th July until 11:59pm Tuesday 20th July to stop the spread of COVID-19, restrictions on dental services across Victoria are now in place once again.

In line with the Government’s advice, we will remain OPEN (by appointment only), but will now be limiting our services to URGENT treatment only for the management of:

• Facial swelling
• Intra-oral swelling
• Facial trauma
• Dental trauma
• Significant/constant/uncontrollable pain.

At this stage, we expect to resume our normal dental services from Wednesday 21st July, but as the situation may change, we will keep you all updated.Patients with appointments on 16th to 20th July that are not deemed as “urgent” and satisfying the above criteria will be contacted to reschedule their appointments, if not already done so.

For any other non-urgent enquiries – please contact the surgery on (03) 5977 5459 or on Facebook messenger and leave a message, one of our team members will get back to you as soon as they can.

We’d like to thank you for your patience and cooperation in helping us ensure the safety of our community during these unprecedented times.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send us a message via Facebook messenger on our Facebook page, through our website www.sdh.com.au or give us a call on (03) 5977 5459.

Thank you once again for your support and we hope you stay safe and healthy during these difficult times. Our thoughts go out to all Victorians.

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9th June, 2021

***BREAKING NEWS***

Dear Patients, Families and Friends of Somerville Dental Health,

We are pleased to announce that the Victorian Government will be easing restrictions from 11.59pm Thursday 10 June 2021. Accordingly, dental practices in metropolitan Melbourne will be able to return to Level 1 dental restrictions after that time, bringing them in line with dental practices in regional Victoria.

This means that as of Friday 11th June 2021 we will operate as per our normal opening hours and will now be able to provide the FULL RANGE of dental services under Level 1 restrictions, including non-urgent routine dental treatment as well as “scale & cleans” that many people have been eagerly waiting for to stay on top of their dental health.

As always, the safety of our patients, their families and our staff are our highest priority. For this reason, we would like to take this opportunity to reassure you that as a COVID-safe practice, our strict screening and triage protocols will continue to remain in place along with our stringent infection control measures to ensure the safety of our patients and staff. This includes QR code check-in, frequent disinfection of surfaces (especially high touch areas), barrier screens at reception, hand sanitiser available for use on entering and leaving the practice and clinical rooms, and use of pre-procedural anti-viral and anti-bacterial mouth rinses before any dental treatment.

We’d like to thank you for your patience and cooperation in helping us ensure the safety of our community during these unprecedented times.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send us a message via Facebook messenger on our Facebook page, through our website www.sdh.com.au or give us a call on (03) 5977 5459.

Thank you once again for your support and we hope you all stay safe and healthy during these difficult times.

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28th May, 2021

Dear Patients, Families and Friends of Somerville Dental Health,

In response to the Victorian Government’s announcement of the circuit breaker lockdown effective as of 11:59pm 27th May until 11:59pm Thursday 3^rd June to stop the spread of COVID-19, restrictions on dental services across Victoria are now in place.

In line with the Government’s advice, we will remain OPEN (by appointment only), but will now be limiting our services until Thursday 3^rd June to EMERGENCY treatment only for the management of:

• Facial swelling
• Intra-oral swelling
• Facial trauma
• Dental trauma
• Significant/constant/uncontrollable pain.

At this stage, we expect to resume our normal dental services from Friday 4^th June, but as the situation may change, we will keep you all updated.

Patients with appointments on 28^th May to 3^rd June that are not deemed an emergency will be contacted to reschedule their appointments, if not already done so.

For any other non-urgent enquiries – please contact the surgery on (03) 5977 5459 or on Facebook messenger and leave a message, one of our team members will get back to you as soon as they can.

We’d like to thank you for your patience and cooperation in helping us ensure the safety of our community during these unprecedented times.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send us a message via Facebook messenger on our Facebook page, through our website www.sdh.com.au or give us a call on (03) 5977 5459.

Thank you once again for your support and we hope you stay safe and healthy during these difficult times. Our thoughts go out to all Victorians.

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13th February, 2021

Dear Patients, Families and Friends of Somerville Dental Health,

In response to the Victorian Government’s announcement yesterday of the circuit breaker lockdown effective as of 11:59pm 12^th February until 11:59pm Wednesday 17^th February to stop the spread of COVID-19, restrictions on dental services across Victoria are now in place.

In line with the Government’s advice, we will remain OPEN (by appointment only), but will now be limiting our services until Wednesday 17^th February to EMERGENCY treatment only for the management of:

• Patients with obvious facial swelling due to infection i.e. vestibular swelling (no trismus), facial swelling (with trismus); or
• Facial trauma; or
• Severe unrelenting pain.

We expect to resume our normal dental services from Thursday 18^th February, but as the situation may change, we will keep you all updated.

Patients with upcoming appointments on 15^th to 17^th February that are not deemed an emergency will be contacted to reschedule their appointments.

For any other non-urgent enquiries – please contact the surgery on (03) 5977 5459 or on Facebook messenger and leave a message, one of our team members will get back to you as soon as they can.

We’d like to thank you for your patience and cooperation in helping us ensure the safety of our community during these unprecedented times.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send us a message via Facebook messenger on our Facebook page, through our website www.sdh.com.au or give us a call on (03) 5977 5459.

Thank you once again for your support and we hope you stay safe and healthy during these difficult times. Our thoughts go out to all Victorians.

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6th August, 2020

Dear Patients, Families and Friends of Somerville Dental Health,

Overnight, the Victorian Government released new information regarding workplace restrictions effective as of Wednesday 5th August from 11:59pm. As per the advice of the Australian Dental Association (ADA) in line with the mandated workplace directive of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for dental practices across metropolitan Melbourne, we have moved to implementing ‘Level 3 dental restrictions’ to ensure the safety of our patients, families and staff. As a result, we will remain OPEN as we always have throughout this pandemic, but will be limiting our services to URGENT or EMERGENCY dental care only.

Under the new Victorian Government restrictions on businesses across Victoria as part of Stage 4 lockdown, you can rest assured that dental services will remain as an essential service that people can access for necessary dental care, even if it requires travelling more than 5km away from home.

As always, the safety of our patients, their families and our staff are our top priority. For this reason, we would like to reassure you that as a COVID-safe practice, our strict screening and triage protocols will remain in place along with our stringent infection control measures of the very highest standards to ensure the safety of our patients and staff, including frequent sanitisation of touchpoints (e.g. pens, EFTPOS machines, door handles, etc).

We’d like to thank you for your patience and cooperation in helping us ensure the safety of our community during these unprecedented times.

If we can help you in any way or if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us by calling us on (03) 5977 5459 or sending us a message via Facebook messenger on our Facebook page or through our website www.sdh.com.au.

Thank you once again for your support and we hope you stay safe and healthy during these difficult times. And remember to continue social distancing, wash your hands regularly and wear a mask or face covering whenever you are out in public.

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22nd July, 2020

Dear Patients, Families and Friends of Somerville Dental Health,

In light of the increasing community commission of COVID-19 in Victoria, we have voluntarily returned to Level 2 dental restrictions since Wednesday 15th July, as per the recommendations by the Australian Dental Association for metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell shire, to ensure the safety of our patients, families and staff.

This means that we will continue to operate as per our normal opening hours and will still be able to continue to provide a wide range of dental services but with a limited scope that is within the recommended guidelines, including some non-urgent routine dental treatment provided that certain criteria are met, such as the routine use of “rubber dam” with fillings. Unfortunately, any aerosol-generating procedure that cannot be carried out under “rubber dam” will not be able to be undertaken, including the usual “cleans” using the ultrasonic scaler. However, where it is recommended and deemed appropriate, maintenance cleans may still be undertaken using “handscalers” where deemed appropriate because it is considered unlikely to generate aerosols.

As always, the safety of our patients, their families and our staff are our top priority. For this reason, we would like to reassure you that as a COVID-safe practice, our strict screening and triage protocols will remain in place along with our stringent infection control measures to ensure the safety of our patients and staff.

We will continue to remain vigilant in closely monitoring the situation and keep you all updated if any new information becomes available.We’d like to thank you for your patience and cooperation in helping us ensure the safety of our community during these unprecedented times.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send us a message via Facebook messenger on our Facebook page, or through our website www.sdh.com.au or give us a call on (03) 5977 5459 to speak to one of our friendly team members.

Thank you once again for your support and we hope you stay safe and healthy during these difficult times. And remember to continue social distancing, wash your hands regularly and wear a mask or face covering whenever you are out in public.

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11th July, 2020

Dear Patients, Families and Friends of Somerville Dental Health,

We hope you have all been staying safe and well during these unprecedented times.

As metropolitan Melbourne faces lockdown for the next 6 weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we would like to reassure all our patients that we will remain OPEN as an essential health service for your dental needs. The latest official recommendation from the Australian Dental Association is to continue operating under Level 1 restrictions on dental services (as we have been since early May).

There is no need to change any existing appointments at this stage.

As a COVID-safe practice, our strict screening and triage protocols will remain in place along with our stringent infection control measures to ensure the safety of our patients and staff.

We will continue to remain vigilant in closely monitoring the situation and keep you all updated if any new information becomes available.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send us a message via Facebook messenger on our Facebook page, through our website www.sdh.com.au or give us a call on (03) 5977 5459 to speak to one of our friendly team members.

Thank you for your support and we hope you stay safe and healthy during these difficult times.

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11th May, 2020

Dear Patients, Families and Friends of Somerville Dental Health,

As the COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease, we are very pleased to announce that as of Saturday 9^th May, the government has eased the restrictions on dental services from Level 2 down to Level 1 in line with the recommendations of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) and the Australian Dental Association due to the continued decreased risk of COVID-19 transmission in the community.

This means that we will now be able to offer the FULL range of dental services to help you with your dental care needs.

As always, the safety of our patients, their families and our staff are our top priority. Rest assured that we will continue to practice and maintain the highest infection control standards and protocols in our clinic, including the additional precautions and protocols that we have been implementing since the very beginning of the restrictions.

Our team are currently in the process of contacting all patients whose appointments were put on hold or cancelled due to the Level 2 and 3 restrictions. However, feel free to contact us to organise a new appointment or reschedule your cancelled appointment.

We’d like to thank you for your patience during these unusual times while our team is working hard to contact everyone. We’d also like to thank you for your cooperation in helping us ensure the safety of our community.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send us a message via Facebook messenger on our Facebook page, through our website www.sdh.com.au or give us a call on (03) 5977 5459 to speak to one of our friendly team members.

We look forward to seeing you all again soon!

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27th April, 2020

We are pleased to announce that as of Monday 27^th April, the government has eased the restrictions on dental services from Level 3 to Level 2 in line with the recommendations of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) and the Australian Dental Association due to the decreased risk of COVID-19 transmission in the community.

This means that we will now be able to provide a wider range of dental services that are within the recommended guidelines, including some non-urgent routine dental treatment provided that certain criteria are met, such as the routine use of “rubber dam” with fillings. Unfortunately, any aerosol-generating procedure that cannot be carried out under “rubber dam” will not be able to be undertaken, including the usual “cleans” using the ultrasonic scaler. However, where it is recommended and deemed appropriate, maintenance cleans may still be undertaken using “handscalers” where deemed appropriate because it is considered unlikely to generate aerosols.

As always, the safety of our patients, their families and our staff are our top priority. For this reason, we would like to take this opportunity to reassure you that we always have, and always will, practice the highest infection control standards and protocols in our clinic.

In fact, we have also implemented the following additional precautions and protocols guided by the latest additional infection control recommendations, including the following:

• Hand sanitiser available for use by patients when they arrive and leave.
• Hand washing on entering our clinical rooms.
• Pre-procedural anti-viral & anti-bacterial mouth-rinses prior to any dental treatment.
• Very strict screening process to ensure all patients coming to the practice are fit and well, and not sick – this means no patients who are coughing, sneezing, feeling feverish or having sore throat
• Removed all magazines and newspaper from our waiting room to avoid contamination
• Social distancing in our waiting rooms and wherever possible in the clinic
• Minimal people encouraged inside the treatment rooms and the practice in general (we endeavour to be a “PATIENT ONLY” practice, where possible only the patient being treated is inside the practice, except for children or individuals that require an accompanying parent or guardian)
• Frequent wiping down of furniture and surfaces with disinfectant
• Clear barrier screens installed at reception to protect both patients and reception staff.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have had an appointment recently cancelled with us, we will be contacting you to reschedule you in sooner. If you have NOT had an appointment cancelled recently, your appointment will proceed as scheduled, unless any planned procedure have been deemed to be outside the scope of Level-2 restriction guidelines. However, feel free to contact us to organise a new appointment or reschedule your cancelled appointment.

We’d like to thank you for your patience during these unpredictable times. We’d also like to thank you for your cooperation in helping us ensure the safety of our community.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send us a message via Facebook Messenger on our Facebook page, through our website www.sdh.com.au or give us a call on (03) 5977 5459.

We look forward to seeing you all again!

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1st April, 2020

Dear Patients, Families and Friends of Somerville Dental Health,

As of Friday 27th March, dental practices across Australia have been advised by the Australian Dental Association and Australian Government to implement Level 3 restrictions for dental treatment due to concerns with COVID-19 pandemic.

This means that for the safety of our team and the community, we are limiting our services to URGENT or EMERGENCY treatment only, and only dental treatments that do not generate aerosols, or where generating aerosols is limited to urgent or emergency care such as the following:
– Facial swelling or dental trauma
– Severe dental pain
– Abscess/Infection
– Medically necessary dental care (i.e. referred by a medical practitioner)

Our hours from day to day will alter, however we are still open to help those in need and do our part in minimising the unnecessary burden on our hospitals for as long as it is reasonably safe to do so and until further guidance by the government.

If you are unsure whether you would be considered an emergency, please don’t hesitate to give our dentists a call for advice on (03) 5977 5459.

All routine dental treatment will be temporarily postponed. Patients with upcoming appointments that are not deemed an emergency will soon be notified by SMS. We will contact all these patients in the near future to reschedule.

For any other non-urgent enquiries – please contact the surgery on (03) 5977 5459 or on Facebook messenger and leave a message, one of our team members will get back to you as soon as they can.

We have taken additional infection control measures and protocols to protect our team and patients, including the following:
– Hand sanitiser available for use by patients when they arrive and leave.
– Hand washing on entering our clinical rooms.
– Pre-procedural anti-viral & anti-bacterial mouth-rinses prior to any dental treatment.
– Very strict screening process to ensure all patients coming to the practice are fit and well, and not sick.

We thank everyone for their understanding during this difficult time.

From all of us at SDH – Stay Safe and we’ll get through this together! And remember to practice excellent hand hygiene and spatial distancing.

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March 19th, 2020

In light of the COVID-19, we are deeply concerned about the health and well-being of our patients, families and our team here at SDH.

It is business as usual for us and we remain open until advised otherwise.

We have always used and continue to use Universal Precautions, following mandate cleaning and disinfection protocols. We wanted to let you know that we will be taking additional safety precautions to help reduce the risk of transmission and ensure that everyone remains safe.

You will find that we have become a PATIENT ONLY practice. Only patients and an accompanying adult (if needed) should enter the practice. Siblings, grandparents and friends should remain outside in their vehicles.

We will require patients to wash their hands on entering our clinical rooms.

We have removed all magazines and newspaper from our waiting room to avoid contamination.

If you have traveled outside of the country or have been in contact with someone who has, we ask that you please reschedule your appointment.

If you or a family member has recently been sick with a fever, cough, shortness of breathe, runny nose or sore throat, we ask that you please reschedule.

We are also practice social distancing within our waiting room.

If you have any questions, please contact a member of our team on (03) 5977 5459.

Let’s all do our part to keep each other safe!

SDH Team