Centre Street Family Dental
36 Centre Street North P1H 1X5 Huntsville, ON, Canada

Just in case you didn’t make it out this weekend, another selection of pictures from our hike this morning. Enjoy!

Centre Street Family Dental rides with the ladies this morning. What an enjoyable way to start the day!

Please enjoy these pictures from the Centennial Ridges trail in Algonquin today.

Headed to the trails for a much needed recharge today. I just wanted to say big thank you to all our wonder staff for making this week back to the office a real team effort. (Many things still happening behind the scenes). A special thank you to all our wonderful patients who came with the most beautiful collection of colourful home-made masks. Everyone was so gracious about following the new protocols (including the online screening Covid -19 screening questionnaire) wh...ile we were still ironing out some bugs in that form. It will still be a road to getting you all back in and rest assured we are working on contacting you. Thanks again for making our first week back as enjoyable and successful as it was. Catherine Zacal, DDS

We are in the office today! Please note: We have hundreds of appointments to rebook BUT YOU CAN HELP! ... To help keep the number of outgoing phone calls and appointmet changes to a minimum, please DO REPLY to any text or email reminder to KEEP YOUR EXISTING APPOINTMENTS going forward starting Monday June 8 as normal. I have an elaborate email with all our modifications and upgrades however we don't have everyone's email adresses, please do text us with your email adress and I can send you the information. I will be updating here often in addition to texts and emails, please stay tuned for any other information. Thank you! Catherine Zacal, DDS

Exciting update! As of 5:13 pm today, the Royal College of Dental Surgeons gave us our newly updated guidelines and go ahead to provide all services. We are happy to report to you that we can comply with these guidelines. We had extensive staff training on Friday in anticipation of this announcement.... We will be contacting patients starting tomorrow by phone or email or text. In the mean time, please read the following IMPORTANT: We will be sending a secure, pre appointment Covid -19 screening questionnaire via text or email, if applicable. When completed it will streamline in-office paperwork. PATIENT ARRIVAL PROTOCOL 1. Please DO NOT wear gloves to the office 2. Please DO wear your OWN MASK (can be home-made) to help follow social distancing in the office and keep on until instructioned to remove, return mask back on before leaving treatment room (Please complete the in office COVID -19 questionnaire when you come to the office if you don’t have access via email or text). 3. Please use our touch free hand sanitizer when you enter (at front desk) and AGAIN before you leave. 4. Please remove outdoor shoes and wear provided indoor footwear 5. Only people receiving treatment to cone to office to limit numbers of people. 6. We still ask for your patience as we start things off slowly to ensure we adjust to our routines properly. 7. Please note that some front desk duties may be being done remotely due to logistics. This may mean some adjustments to administration than you have been used to. Thank you again for your standing by and we are very excited to see you soon. Dr Catherine Zacal

Keep your eyes peeled for our colourful tent that can be used for sighting when open water swimming in the lake! Getting moving this weekend when we were supposed to be at the #trimuskokan for our local triathlon (post-poned until 2021 due to Covid-19). The day was spent with copious body moving activities at Arrowhead Provincial Park instead. Oh what a day!

Centre Street Family Dental rides with the ladies this morning. What an enjoyable way to start the day!

Dear patient patients! Our wheels have never stopped turning and we gave been gearing up into high gear with the recent protocol changes coming to us from various governing agencies. I think I have had to rewrite our staff training manuals 3 x since the weekend! A provincial emergency extension announced today to June 9 means only dental emergency and very limited urgent care until then. We are still standing by to the hear the latest new protocols that will be unveiled ...by our College hopefully today or tomorrow. These protocols are meant to be used for return to regular care and it is a step in the right direction for those waiting patiently. Please do call the office 705 789 3131 and leave a message for keeping your name in queue. Please email us your email address to [email protected] so we can keep you updated with information on our new office procedures when we open up again. We are looking forward to looking after you as soon as we are able. Thank you for your understanding. Catherine Zacal Hon BSc, DDS

Now that the dust has settled from the office re-opening, I have been able to finally finish this series tonight. You may end up seeing these at the office someplace!

Headed to the trails for a much needed recharge today. I just wanted to say big thank you to all our wonder staff for making this week back to the office a real team effort. (Many things still happening behind the scenes). A special thank you to all our wonderful patients who came with the most beautiful collection of colourful home-made masks. Everyone was so gracious about following the new protocols (including the online screening Covid -19 screening questionnaire) wh...ile we were still ironing out some bugs in that form. It will still be a road to getting you all back in and rest assured we are working on contacting you. Thanks again for making our first week back as enjoyable and successful as it was. Catherine Zacal, DDS

https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php. We’ve know this for many years, that’s why we do it! Interesting that the benefits to the brain are increased when the exercise is perceived as enjoyable instead of a chore. An added bonus is the great ideas pop into my mind when doing prolonged cardiovascular exercise, as improved oxygenation provides clarity and ease of thinking. This has been helpful when trying to come up with solutions to today’s new challenges.... We hope you are staying well and hope to see you soon.

We hope this post finds you are all doing well. Your patience is much appreciated as we are trying to keep the spread of the virus down, and I want to thank everyone for playing their part, including of course our front line workers. We are keeping track of all the urgent needed appointments as they are called in. Thank you all for your feedback and sending in your emails. It really helps us to help you stay informed. Our emergency only phase of treatment has been exte...nded until June 2, following the Ontario Government announcement a few days ago. Once we hear about a first day back, we will be calling you and organizing the schedule in advance of that date. We will be creating a Video to assist everyone with understanding some new protocols for social distancing in the office and other procedural items. We will do our best to make the return to the dental office as smooth as possible but likely the office flow and appointment LOGISTICS may require some tweaking and revisions as we go. We are currently already preparing for the new Covid-19 related guidelines from hints we are getting from provinces that are starting to see dental patients. I wish you all a happy Victoria Day weekend and keep safe if you are staying local and venturing into nature for a run or hike!

We are in the office today! Please note: We have hundreds of appointments to rebook BUT YOU CAN HELP! ... To help keep the number of outgoing phone calls and appointmet changes to a minimum, please DO REPLY to any text or email reminder to KEEP YOUR EXISTING APPOINTMENTS going forward starting Monday June 8 as normal. I have an elaborate email with all our modifications and upgrades however we don't have everyone's email adresses, please do text us with your email adress and I can send you the information. I will be updating here often in addition to texts and emails, please stay tuned for any other information. Thank you! Catherine Zacal, DDS

Exciting update! As of 5:13 pm today, the Royal College of Dental Surgeons gave us our newly updated guidelines and go ahead to provide all services. We are happy to report to you that we can comply with these guidelines. We had extensive staff training on Friday in anticipation of this announcement.... We will be contacting patients starting tomorrow by phone or email or text. In the mean time, please read the following IMPORTANT: We will be sending a secure, pre appointment Covid -19 screening questionnaire via text or email, if applicable. When completed it will streamline in-office paperwork. PATIENT ARRIVAL PROTOCOL 1. Please DO NOT wear gloves to the office 2. Please DO wear your OWN MASK (can be home-made) to help follow social distancing in the office and keep on until instructioned to remove, return mask back on before leaving treatment room (Please complete the in office COVID -19 questionnaire when you come to the office if you don’t have access via email or text). 3. Please use our touch free hand sanitizer when you enter (at front desk) and AGAIN before you leave. 4. Please remove outdoor shoes and wear provided indoor footwear 5. Only people receiving treatment to cone to office to limit numbers of people. 6. We still ask for your patience as we start things off slowly to ensure we adjust to our routines properly. 7. Please note that some front desk duties may be being done remotely due to logistics. This may mean some adjustments to administration than you have been used to. Thank you again for your standing by and we are very excited to see you soon. Dr Catherine Zacal

https://covid-19.ontario.ca/self-assessment/ We want to make sure there are no barriers to seeing you as soon as possible when we do open up and we thinknit is soon. The types of symptoms that will trigger a positive result on a Covid-19 screening questionnaire may surprise you. ... To avoid disappointing surprises, please go ahead and do the self assessment tool and contact the Huntsville Hosptal Covid 19 assessment centre to arrange an appointment for a Covid test at 1-888-383-7009 if necessary. You may as well get familiar with these questions as we have to ask them over the phone BEFORE your appointment (or via text or email form) and AGAIN IN THE OFFICE at the time of your appointment. Thank you for your help and attention. Sincerely Dr Catherine Zacal

As reported by CP 24 news this evening, dentists are apparently allowed to open but we don’t have our guidelines yet and no return date yet. Dentists have not received word from our college yet about a date to open for in-person care or what the finalized protocols are. I will update as soon as we know more.

Dear patient patients! Our wheels have never stopped turning and we gave been gearing up into high gear with the recent protocol changes coming to us from various governing agencies. I think I have had to rewrite our staff training manuals 3 x since the weekend! A provincial emergency extension announced today to June 9 means only dental emergency and very limited urgent care until then. We are still standing by to the hear the latest new protocols that will be unveiled ...by our College hopefully today or tomorrow. These protocols are meant to be used for return to regular care and it is a step in the right direction for those waiting patiently. Please do call the office 705 789 3131 and leave a message for keeping your name in queue. Please email us your email address to [email protected] so we can keep you updated with information on our new office procedures when we open up again. We are looking forward to looking after you as soon as we are able. Thank you for your understanding. Catherine Zacal Hon BSc, DDS

Sometimes you just need goat therapy to help you get through the difficult times (social distanced). Angee is very knowledgeable and has super friendly goats! (also convenient and local in Raymond/ Utterson area). A special birthday treat for this week’s birthdays being celebrated.

https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php. We’ve know this for many years, that’s why we do it! Interesting that the benefits to the brain are increased when the exercise is perceived as enjoyable instead of a chore. An added bonus is the great ideas pop into my mind when doing prolonged cardiovascular exercise, as improved oxygenation provides clarity and ease of thinking. This has been helpful when trying to come up with solutions to today’s new challenges.... We hope you are staying well and hope to see you soon.

We hope this post finds you are all doing well. Your patience is much appreciated as we are trying to keep the spread of the virus down, and I want to thank everyone for playing their part, including of course our front line workers. We are keeping track of all the urgent needed appointments as they are called in. Thank you all for your feedback and sending in your emails. It really helps us to help you stay informed. Our emergency only phase of treatment has been exte...nded until June 2, following the Ontario Government announcement a few days ago. Once we hear about a first day back, we will be calling you and organizing the schedule in advance of that date. We will be creating a Video to assist everyone with understanding some new protocols for social distancing in the office and other procedural items. We will do our best to make the return to the dental office as smooth as possible but likely the office flow and appointment LOGISTICS may require some tweaking and revisions as we go. We are currently already preparing for the new Covid-19 related guidelines from hints we are getting from provinces that are starting to see dental patients. I wish you all a happy Victoria Day weekend and keep safe if you are staying local and venturing into nature for a run or hike!

Finally getting some time to do some art expressionon Mother’s Day! Just love watercolour, seems like every thing is therapy these days. Happy Mother’s Day to all you wonderful moms out there.

Amid the fray, a much needed chuckle

Appointment updates: please note that as far as we know we are still only seeing EMERGENCIES ONLY until May 12, awaiting more instructions from the government as we go. I saw this appropriate rock as I was doing a run to stay healthy and decompress from the endless preparation work that has been going on behind closed doors to ensure a safe return for you all. Stay safe everyone! Catherine Zacal, DDS

A big Congratulations to our Hygienist Marloes for this amazing honour! I am so proud of her and all the staff who really go the extra mile for our patients. We miss our patients and are looking forward to helping you when it’s time to safely re-open. Once again, congratulations Marloes, well deserved!

https://doppleronline.ca//trimuskoka-donates-4000-to-the-/. So proud of the community helping out and being be part of the Trimuskoka Board. Still lots of work to be done and time to pass before we can go back to enjoying our great outdoors to the fullest. Thank you to our Muskoka Hospital and all front line workers.

Got my respirator fit tested and it’s a Pass! going forward with goggles and face shields, this is what you can expect to see if you come in for an emergency if treatment is needed. Just wanted to post this so you would get an idea of all that is involved so you aren’t frightened if you do have to come in. (Mandated equipment for performing emergency treatment - or smaller fit tested N95 mask)

Dear Patients, a COVID 19 "housekeeping" announcement to answer some questions: 1. All affected appointments have been cancelled but logged to be in the proper queue for when we open again. 2. IMPORTANT: Please do call the office to leave a message with any non-urgent dental issues, as I am keeping a list of people that will need to be seen first upon opening. I am in the office daily to check messages and I am adding people to the list as people call in and leave messag...es. Please do not wait until we are open to call, it is better to leave a message as problems occur, since we just don’t know how long this is going to last. I am staying up to date on developments and likely we will need to screen patients before each appointment with a COVID 19 questionnaire. If this is the case going forward: 3. IMPORTANT: To streamline the pre-appointment COVID 19 questionnaire process, if you have signed up for email or text, I am currently arranging to have the questionnaire sent out via email or text (a day or two before your appointment) with a link to a short and secure online form. We really appreciate your patience and cooperation at this time and especially when we open back up. I do have a plan to have extra people on the phones to help with the volume of calls we are expecting. Please stay safe and we will see you when it is safe to do so. (IMPORTANT: If you want email or text please email [email protected] and let us know by updating your contact information) Sincerely, Catherine Zacal, Hon BSc, DDS

Covid 19 update: in accordance with government mandates, we are seeing emergencies (infection, pain, swelling) only until May 4 at which time another assessment will be made. Please do leave a message at 705 789 3131 as I am checking messages daily and keeping a list of patients to see when we open up again for dental problems as they develop. This is a hard time for all of us and we hope you are all staying safe.... (A fun cake we made to stretch our creative and baking muscles! I’m calling it rustic cube.)