Pandemic Dentist Visit

Pandemic or not, summer is a time to take care of appointments. Shane had a 12:00 PM dentist appointment.

It's not like we could just walk right in, though. Times have changed.

I pulled up to the dentist, turned off the car, and called to say we'd arrived.

It was hot.

Really hot.

In retrospect, I wouldn't have turned off the car if I'd known it would take them so long to walk out (I was trying to save the environment!). Shane started to complain he was melting and I was probably saying, "Suck it up, buttercup" when the hygienist came out wearing head-to-toe, bio-hazard gear.

The woman in the hazmat suit pulled out a thermometer gun and pointed it at my forehead. "Your temperature is too high to come in."

I had to turn the AC back on. We sat around another 5 minutes. We passed the second try (The studying helped). I asked the nurse what my temperature had been the first time she came out. "102." It turns out sitting in a hot car makes you hot.

The office looked different on the inside. The toys were gone. The chairs were few. There was a little sign noting, "You're on camera."

The biggest change for Shane was his mask. This was the first time he had to wear it.

He's a fan of fiddling with it, at least. Keeping it in place is a little harder, but he did okay.

The hygienist had Shane gargle with mouthwash while she donned a plastic shield (with a kitty-cat nose!).

Other than being in a near empty office with bio-hazard clad personnel in a closed-door side suite while wearing a mask it was a standard dental visit.

No x-rays and no cavities. Or if there were, they didn't think they merited the extra look at germs.

The one new bit was Shane was prescribed fluoride chews. We're on a well and not city water now. It never occurred to me that our water was no longer fluoride treated. Maybe I'll need something myself?

It was a long enough drive into town, so Carrie had me stop at Southern States and Tractor Supply on the way home. I want to say 90% of the people I see in town wear masks. There was a woman and her two teenage kids without in the Tractor Supply line and it struck me as interesting that I noticed who wasn't wearing a mask as much as those who were. A year ago the reverse would have been true.

Shane has an orthodontist appointment later this month. I'll know to keep the AC on until we get scanned this time! I probably need to reschedule whatever appointments for me got cancelled at some point, too.