Patient Safety Protocols
Welcome! Dr. Shems and our team have updated
our safety protocols!
We would like to welcome any parent inside our office that would like to accompany their child to their appointment. If you prefer to wait outside, someone from our team will update you in the parking lot or by text following the appointment. Masks remain required! Our office upgrades continue to keep our patients, staff and their families protected.
We are Proud to Inform You That We’ve Taken
Every Safety Measure Possible – Please Read How
Office Air-Cleaning Strategies
We partnered with local HVAC company AAA Energy Service to design and install a professional air-cleaning system. It exhausts air from our Clinical Area and treats the air with the latest technologies available. This creates a much safer environment for our patients and staff.
The air from our clinical area is exhausted and treated once every 3.7 minutes. That’s 16 air-changes per hour!
Once exhausted, the air is:
- Exposed to medical grade UVC lights (254 nm) which inactivates microorganisms.
- Air flows past a bi-polar ionization generator, the device emits positive and negative ions, creating a plasma region that actively purifies the air, killing mold, bacteria and viruses.
- Filtered through HEPA filters with rated efficiency of 99.99% @ 0.3 microns or larger. The novel coronavirus itself is 0.125 microns, but the droplets it travels in—when people cough, talk, or breathe—initially are larger, around 1 micron. That’s a size easily captured by HEPA filters.
- Our Clinical Treatment Area has been converted to a negative pressure zone, mirroring critical care hospital suites to constantly maintain clean air.
- Implementation of two styles of additional high speed evacuation units to absorb 89-98% of aerosolization when removing orthodontic adhesives.
- Touch-free fixtures throughout the office to minimize cross contamination.



Breathe easy when you visit our practice!
Click the links below to learn more:
ASHRAE Position Document on Infectious Aerosols
HEPA Filters
BiPolar Ionization
UVC Light
Negative Pressure Room
Xuction HVE Dental Aerosol Reduction
Dentsply Sirona Purevac® HVE