Quarantine Diaries: Day 182
My dental cleaning is long overdue. The last one I had was about a year ago and I then scheduled one for May. Then the coronapocalypse hit. My dentist’s office closed, their voicemail box filled up, their website had vague promises of reopening in the future and they had no email listed. Brilliant. May came and went, they remained closed for most of the summer. Then a month ago I got a voicemail saying my cleaning was overdue, please schedule an appointment. Duh.
But I dilly dallied and dithered. Today, my wife went in for her cleaning. And then came home without having had her teeth cleaned. She decided not to sign the “COVID-19 Pandemic Dental Treatment and Acknowledgement of Risk” form. All kinds of warnings of increased risk of contracting the disease plus an I’m signing away any right to sue stipulation. Um, no thanks.
Guess I’ll floss even more often than I already do.
Coronavirus News, Analysis, Opinion, et cetera:
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not come to New York for the UN General Assembly session, “as the epidemiological situation in the USA remains unstable,” TASS reports.
Vaccine Trial Halted In United Kingdom
People who wear face masks become less sick if they do contract coronavirus, researchers find
Social gatherings above six banned in England from 14 September
Ukrainian church leader who blamed COVID-19 on gay marriage tests positive
The Emotionally Challenging Next Phase of the Pandemic
A weary friend of mine—another working mom—recently texted to say she couldn’t decide which aspect of daily life during the coronavirus pandemic was worse: “the insanity or the monotony.” Either way, the misery will not end when 2020 does. The new year will inherit many of the same problems that have become so grindingly familiar in 2020.
Americans frustrated with Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic have trained their eyes on the November election, but even if Joe Biden wins, the status quo is essentially locked in until at least early next year, if not later. Trump owns the winter. If he loses the election, he may lose any lingering interest he had in fighting the pandemic—and go out of his way to make Biden’s task more difficult. If Trump wins, he’ll take it as validation of his approach to the crisis.
United States Looks Set To Lose $155 Billion From Missing International Tourists And Visitors
$425 million a day being lost to the U.S. economy
Why Contact-Tracing Apps Haven’t Slowed Covid-19 in the US
Dentists Are Seeing an Epidemic of Cracked Teeth. What's Going On?
I closed my midtown Manhattan practice to all but dental emergencies in mid-March, in line with American Dental Association guidelines and state government mandate. Almost immediately, I noticed an uptick in phone calls: jaw pain, tooth sensitivity, achiness in the cheeks, migraines. Most of these patients I effectively treated via telemedicine.
But when I reopened my practice in early June, the fractures started coming in: at least one a day, every single day that I’ve been in the office. On average, I’m seeing three to four; the bad days are six-plus fractures.
