Dental Visits during a Pandemic

Think about this time last year. Think about the annoyance of having to schedule your kiddos dental visits, the annoyance of driving (for us) 30 mins one way to a really great dentist for kids, and the overwhelming knowledge that at some point during this dental visit your children will fight with each other. If you are like me and have more than 1 kiddo...you may find scheduling their visits back to back on the same day so it is more like 1 and done situation. For us...we would make the drive out to Puyallap, park next to a Starbucks which always had the question "Can I get a cake pop" or "can we get coffee" being asked. We would get out of the car and walk up this giant flight of stairs that curved around a fountain. The kids would walk in and go straight to the "game room" where they would instantly pick up controllers and play mario kart on the switch their dental office has. I would go sign them in and sit in a chair and usually scroll facebook until they were called. Then they would trade off in the chair (usually Madison would be playing with a life sized stuff gorilla until it was her turn) and then they would both get a coin for the "treat" machine where they would get a small toy (like from a quarter machine at the grocery store). We schedule the next appointment for 6 months out and then went home, no other worry in the world. 

WELL FOLKS...that just isn't how things work anymore. 

How do appointments go now you may ask...there are more steps, less people interactions and no fun things for kids. For the most part the drive and questions from the kids were the same, instead of getting out as soon as we got there we had to call and see if we could come in. When we were given the green light to come in, each of us had to put on our mask. We each had to then sanitize our hands when we walked into the office, have our temps taken and then answer the now standard COVID questions. The kids sat in an empty game room wishing they could play and I sat in a pretty much empty lobby wishing COVID was never a thing. Their dentist is really good about limiting the amount of time we have to wait to get called back so we weren't waiting very long. When we get pulled back this time, they had 2 chairs sitting next to the exam chair for us to sit in and rotate out of. Anyone not in the exam chair had to keep their mask on. The dental assistants got the kids their "goodie bags" before the dentist even saw them and added their choice of toy (the coin machine is now gone and so is the stuffed gorilla). Of course I am not at all saying that the steps they have taken to limit any sort of cross contamination or anything isn't great...it is just not the world I want my kids to have to grow up in. These types of things can be very off putting for children with anxiety disorders and really hard for a kid who requires normalcy in human interaction to function. Anyways so the kids get checked out (Austin has lost all his baby teeth on the bottom and has 4 more on the top, and Madison's 6 year old molars are fully in so time for sealants). Dental visits these days now require multiple hand sanitizing moments ( you should wash your hands or the very least sanitize your hands before putting on/removing your mask), talking through a thick plexi glass window, having your head scanned for a fever, answering the "standard" COVID questions and having limited human interactions. For my adult visits...they have me mouth wash with some special mouth wash for 60 seconds (they even have a timer). 

What I have noticed...the adults I think are struggling. When I have gone to recent appointments it is the adults that have kinda reached out for any sort of conversation. Talking on a phone is ok...but face to face human interaction that is what makes people...people. I have noticed that where as before you may walk past someone or just sit next to your child while ignoring the staff because well in my mind...they are focusing on my kids not me...but really the adults will now reach out with every sort of branch...talking about just about everything ( I found myself in a political conversation with one of the gals from my ortho office...I was there on her lunch break and she was doing me a solid for my dental cleaning and we literally talked for 45 mins). 

So anyways...interesting times now...Madison goes for her sealants next month and hopefully come Jan we wont have to follow these COVID restrictions. Here are just a couple pictures from their visit...man oh man does the boy need a haircut and I need my brows done LOL

~Stephanie Shelton