A Dental Appointment

Yesterday, I visited my dental clinic. It was a regular checkup, but I put off my appointments two times because I thought dental treatment could be the most dangerous activity in this pandemic era. I was still a bit afraid, but I thought the recent COVID-19 state is relatively stable in the Bay Area. So, I hit the road.

The experience was much better than expected. I had to call the clinic in the parking lot. Then a staff came and checked my temperature and gave me a questionnaire about my current conditions. All dentists and staff wore full PPEs. I heard that they had to change it for every patient. They separated every patient, and I couldn’t notice any other patient even I had seen several at the parking lot. I felt safe.

As I took a bold step, I took a step further. I visited a Korean Grocery store for the first time after the lockdown (last March). It was also excellent. Everyone wore a mask. They limit the total number of customers inside the store, so I didn’t need to contact other people much. After the lockdown, my food supplies have depended only on Instacart. But I got to think I could enjoy more variety of ingredients now. It makes me quite relieved.

Through the long experience with COVID-19, we learned how to live with it.  Although we still need more time to back to normal days, I felt that now we can have a small room to breathe. But we can only maintain it if we all follow the right protocols.