PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act)

As of January 1, 2004, the federal government of Canada has passed the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, a legislation that requires dental offices to obtain consent from clients to collect, use and disclose any of their personal information. The guidelines in this new legislation are similar to the confidentiality policy already followed in our office, however, we will now require patients to sign a form to give consent. There is always an option to withdraw consent at any time. What does this mean to our patients? This is an extra safeguard for the public to ensure that their personal information will be protected by our office. For example, insurance stubs with patient information are shred after use, patient files are in a locked room and no information is released to a third party (ie. a specialist) without first obtaining consent from the patient, and the list goes on. The Pickering Village Dental Office has followed the principles under the Royal College of Dental Surgeons regarding PIPEDA. Please feel free to contact our staff if you have any questions.

Amalgam Separators

Effective November 15, 2003 dental offices have been mandated to include an amalgam separator with all suction units in the office. This process prevents mercury from entering the water supplies in this area. We support this effort to maintain a safe and healthy environment.

She's Having A Baby!!!!

Annaliisa, our dental assistant and Shannon, our dental hygienist are both expecting!! Must be something in the water at Pickering Village Dental… LOL. This is Shannon's first baby and Annaliisa's second child. Shannon is due in August and Annaliisa is due in October 2008. We wish them both well and we will see them back in summer/fall 2009.

Wedding Bells

Christina, our dental assistant is getting married September 2009. Congratulations on your engagement!

Renovations

You may or may not have noticed yet but the office is going through renovations. We have put wood flooring in all of the rooms and new cabinetry and upgraded countertops in the main operatories. We think that this adds more warmth to the office. We also bought new chairs and equipment for 3 main rooms. We converted a room into a new operatory and dug out the basement so that we will have more space for storage. We have t.v.s in all of our rooms but enjoy our new hanging t.v.s in the main rooms (hang over your head for better viewing). We also gave a fresh coat of paint to the entire office and updated our paintings in the waiting room. Our next step is to put a television in the waiting room and to change over to digital radiography.

Co-op Students

Thank you to Sasha who did a co-op placement in our office. She is a student from Durham College and taking dental assisting. We also had Heather here to help out and learn all about the front desk. Heather is taking the dental reception course, also at Durham College. We wish them both all the best and we are sure that they will take valuable knowledge from this office to their future endeavors.