Impressions
The Dog Days of 2020
by Dr. Stephen T. Radack III, Editor
ERIE, Pa., Thursday July 23, 2020 – It’s
Opening Day in Major League Baseball as
the New York Yankees travel to our
nation’s capital to take on the defending
World Series Champion Washington
Nationals (insert the sound of a screeching
of a needle over a vinyl record or brakes
on pavement)!
Yes, it is July and not March 26 as the game was originally
scheduled for before the COVID-19 global pandemic put a halt
to the world and mostly everything we knew as normal. The
NBA is about the restart its season July 30 in a “bubble” at Walt
Disney World in Orlando and the NHL is restarting its season
August 1 and will play in “bubbles” in Toronto and Edmonton in
Canada. Most professional sports are back or about to restart,
but listen closely when you watch on TV because in almost all
cases any fan noise you might hear is artificial and being piped
in. The stadiums and venues are empty as the pandemic still
has its grip on our country and the world. The NFL says it is
ready too, but minor league baseball is cancelled this year and
the fall sports of colleges and high schools are either cancelled,
postponed to spring or have their seasons in doubt!
When last I wrote to you, we had just started the quarantine;
the one that was supposed to last for two weeks then ended up
lasting for almost three months before we were able to go back
to the office and start to practice again. It seemed like things
were really starting to turn around as the initial crisis of high
numbers of COVID-19 cases and even deaths were starting to
decline. Health departments across the U.S. were starting to
allow bars, restaurants, and most “nonessential” business to
reopen, even while still having some restrictions. Unfortunately,
we are a social society, and once the restrictions were lifted
people gathered together again without facemasks and social
distancing. It seemed as if some acted like nothing ever
happened. So numbers of positive tests started to rise again in
some places, and states levied more onerous restrictions again
to try and flatten the curve again.
Here in Pennsylvania, the Department of Health (DOH) finally
allowed dentists to return to our offices (June 3) and perform
dentistry using our best clinical judgement as long as we had
the necessary person protective equipment (PPE). I know there
was a little bit (or maybe a lot) of apprehension from everyone
– doctors and staff – in our office as we restarted. What could
we expect? Our waiting room was now the parking lot and
every patient would be screened and have their temperature
checked before entering the office. There are large sheets of
Plexiglas separating the front desk staff from the patients and
everyone wears a mask, even the patient, right until the time we
look in their mouth. I have met new patients who may never
know exactly what I look like (not that this is a good or bad
thing) and haven’t given anyone a proper greeting, a shake
of the hand, in months. Welcome to the new normal, at least
for the foreseeable future.
Our office and most around the country are getting back to
normal though. The ADA’s Health Policy Institute has been
conducting surveys since the pandemic started to see the
effects on dental offices. When the first survey was taken for the
week of March 23, 76% of the dental offices were closed and
only seeing emergency patients, 19% were closed and not
seeing any patients. So an almost unimaginable 95% of the
dental offices were CLOSED. Who could have ever imagined?
The latest survey for the week of July 13 showed that 42%
of the offices are open and conducting business as usual and
56% are open, but seeing a lower patient volume than
normal. (https://www.ada.org/en/science-research/healthpolicy-institute)
This is all great news for our profession, our
staffs and the patients we serve. I know most of felt absolutely
helpless being closed and not having the PPE necessary to
even treat an emergency!
As the dog days of summer wind down and fall approaches,
many of us will be getting ready to send our children back to
school, either elementary, high school or college. There is still so
much uncertainty as to what that will look like. Will there actually
be in-person classes, online learning or some hybrid? I know
there are a lot of creative minds working on the safest solutions.
Those same type of leaders at ADA made the tough decision
to cancel the in-person America’s Dental Meeting in Orlando in
October. This would have been the first year of a collaboration
between the constituent dental society, the Florida Dental
Association, and the ADA. In the ADA announcement, it explained
that, “As a science-based organization, the health, safety, and
well-being of our members, attendees, staff, and exhibitors are
our top priorities.” Obviously, health and safety would have been
a challenge this October in Orlando with 30,000+ attendees.
There will be a virtual meeting instead. I know so many of you
have been to enough virtual meetings and CE since the pandemic
started, but as a former member of the ADA Committee on
Annual Meetings, I am sure this committee and the ADA staff
will make it an awesome educational experience.
JULY/AUGUST 2020 | PENNSYLVANIA DENTAL JOURNAL 5