The doors of remaining dentist offices staying open are taking in emergency patients but with extra precaution.
“Call upon arrival so no one has to go in the waiting room. We’re opening the doors and having them come in and do a pre-procedure rinse before we work on them," said Ashley Price.
Once the patient gets into the chair, there's still a few precautions that take place before any procedure can begin.
“Taking their temperature, just trying to do minimal invasive dentistry to get them out of pain," said Price.
Staff at Price and Associates say that these extra measures taken by their staff seem to be working, allowing them to help a limited amount of patients while remaining safe. With all the changes, comes reducing the normal 17 staff members to 3.
“The practice in total normally sees about 40 patients a day and we kind of cut that back one to two, with everything that’s going on we’re only seeing emergencies," said Chelsea Guilliot.
Even with business going through hard times, the staff says the main focus is trying to lighten the load of work off nurses and hospitals.
“We really want to alleviate the emergency room. So, we really want to encourage people to see us if they have an emergency and not the emergency room if they have dental pain, said Price.
