Office Reopening Update

May 1, 2020

Dear Patients, Family, and Friends of Nease & Higginbotham Orthodontics,

We sure have missed seeing all of your smiling faces in our office over the past few weeks! Our hope is that everyone is healthy and doing well, both physically and mentally, as we trudge through the COVID-19 pandemic.

We have designed a modified schedule allowing us to address many of the immediate needs of our patients in a safe environment; however, this does not mean a return to business as usual. While the spread of the virus seems to be waning, its threat to public health is by no means over. The patience and understanding shown by each of you over the last two months has been incredible and appreciated, and we ask for your continued understanding as we wade forward into establishing our new normal. Look to our website and social media outlets and expect email and text messages for updates on changes you can expect in our practice.

We are dedicated to your health and safety- Here’s what we are doing:

We understand you have concerns about COVID-19. We at Nease & Higginbotham Orthodontics want to make sure that we do everything that we can to protect our patients, their families, and our team members. We have always taken pride in our procedures to keep the office clean and safe. We practice universal precautions, which means we treat each patient as they could potentially be infected. We will also be using only every other chair in our clinic to adhere to social distancing guidelines. Our goals are to minimize the possibility of exposure but also to continue to provide the uncompromised service and orthodontic treatment that all of our patients deserve! BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP!

With your safety in mind, we ask that you adhere to the following policies:

If a patient or a family member is currently experiencing any flu-like symptoms (fever, body aches, sore throat, runny nose, cough), please contact our office so that we can reschedule your appointment – PLEASE DON’T COME IN IF YOU ARE SICK!
If you have recently traveled out of country or to other high-risk hot spots in the United States, or have been in contact with a suspected carrier, please call to reschedule your appointment.
When you arrive for your appointment, please DO NOT come into the office. We ask that you DO NOT arrive early for your appointment, as we will not be able to see you until your appointed time.

Please follow these instructions based on which office you have an appointment.

If you are at the West Spartanburg or Union offices:

TEXT 864.408.8332 (or call 864.587.8000 if needed) when you ARRIVE in the parking lot to check in and let us know you are there
We will TEXT YOU when we are ready for you to come inside

If you are at the East Spartanburg, Duncan, or Gaffney offices

TEXT 864.579.7700 (or call the same number if needed) to check in
We will TEXT YOU when we are ready for you to come inside

At All Offices:

When you enter the office, your temperature WILL BE TAKEN with a no touch thermometer. Any reading over 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit will require us to reschedule your appointment.
For regular adjustments and appointments, ONLY PATIENTS will be allowed into our CLINIC area. This does not apply to consultations, where parents and guardians are a necessary part of the appointment process. If a small child requires a parent to accompany them into the clinic, we ask that the parent wear a face covering that they provide as unfortunately we do not have enough masks to provide to parents at this time. We insist that siblings remain at home or wait in the car. If any of these conditions cannot be met, it is best if we reschedule the appointment.
We have removed as many avenues for cross-contaminations in our office as possible: all chairs have been removed from our waiting rooms, toothbrushing stations have been placed out of commission, water, coffee, magazines, video games, toys, and the self-check screen in will be suspended until further notice.
Please consider rescheduling retainer check appointments or observation (waiting for growth or dental eruption) appointments to a future date or ask for a virtual appointment as many of these appointments can, and will, be handled virtually through phone calls, emails, and text messages.
If you have additional Invisalign aligners to be delivered and do not require the placement or removal of attachments, we suggest you simply swing by our offices to pick up your next sets of trays and we will schedule a virtual appointment with one of our doctors. If you need attachments placed/removed, we will handle those situations on a case by case basis.
Each patient’s next appointment WILL BE SCHEDULED before they leave, and a reminder given to the patient. If this appointment does not work with your schedule, please call us to change it.
Although parents will not be in the office, we still consider you critical participants in your child’s treatment and we will do our best to communicate with patients or parents through whatever means possible. Just because you can’t be in the office doesn’t mean we will not keep you updated on what is happening with your child’s treatment. Our team may come to the car and speak with you. They may call you or even send you a video through your child’s phone. However, feel free to reach out to us after the appointment with questions. The direct doctor line is 864.707.1969 (Dr. Nease) and (864) 580-6526 (Dr. Thomas).

Remember, our goal is to resume patient care on a limited basis while following rapidly evolving recommended guidelines and protocols to reduce the spread of the disease. If you have any concerns or feel uncomfortable about a visit to our office, we certainly understand and will be happy to assist you in rescheduling your appointment.

Please know that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our world and our practice, and we are making these changes not because we WANT to, but because we MUST! At Nease & Higginbotham Orthodontics, we will do our best to minimize any inconveniences that may occur to the best of our ability. We are aware that scheduling is often difficult in our busy office, but we are committed to safe and efficiently treating our amazing patients.
Thank you so very much for your understanding,

Dr. Eric Nease, Dr. Alex Thomas, Dr. Phil Higginbotham, and Dr. Gary Horvath