Dental Care in the Time of COVID

by Pa Rock
Smiler, Chewer, Biter

Thirteen days from today would have marked the one-year anniversary since my last visit to the dentist, but thanks to the combination of one very negative event and one very positive event, I found myself back in the dentist's chair this morning.

I generally practice good dental hygiene: two brushings a day (three would be better), and I follow each brushing with a good swish of mouthwash - an alcohol-based mouthwash in the mornings that annihilates germs, and a non-alcoholic but fluoride-based mouthwash in the evenings that fights to prevent cavities while letting me sleep without getting the alcohol dry-mouth.  I still have all of my own teeth, save one which had to be pulled last year, and it is rare that I have cavities or need serious repairs.

I also try to visit the dentist twice a year for a check-up and a cleaning.  This year, because of the pandemic, I cancelled the six-month check-up that should have been last August, and kicked that can down the road a couple of months.  Then, as that time drew near and the pandemic was still raging, I kicked the can again.  I was to have a cleaning on February 8th, and if, at that time, I still had not had at least one COVID shot, I was prepared to kick it a third time.  (Dental problems are preferable to death by suffocation in a lame-ass rural hospital.)

But in December the ante on the side of keeping the dental appointment was suddenly upped when I broke a tooth.    Now I had a hole in one of my back teeth that filled itself with food every time I took a bite of anything.  I called the dentist and learned that the earliest I could get in was February, but I was able to piggyback the repair appointment onto my existing appointment for cleaning.  At that time COVID shots in the Ozarks were still a pipe dream, so I made a moral commitment to go whether I was able to score some pandemic protection before the appointment or not.

The broken tooth was the very negative event.  Fortunately, my community came up with a COVID shot clinic at the end of January where myself and 2,800 other old farts were able to score our first inoculations, so that was the very positive event that balanced out the situation.

Here are a few observations from today's visit to the dentist:  The clinic was not nearly as crowded as on past visits, and my dentist - who is exceptional - performed the cleaning himself after he had finished with the filling.  A technician did the X-ray work as well as the teeth-polishing after the cleaning.  Patients were required to be masked when not in the "chair" being treated.  There was also a procedure for waiting in your car until called, but they were ready for me as soon as I updated my paperwork.  Part of the paperwork was a new form which said the clinic was following all normal COVID protocols, and I relinquished my right to sue if I developed COVID after the visit.   And, the dentist and technician were both masked and wearing gloves during all of their interactions with me.

I felt relatively safe during the entire process, so safe that I had no qualms about making a follow-up appointment for six months from now.  Surely by then all of this pandemic madness will be over!

Life is slowly returning to normal.