NEW YORK - It’s been two and a half months since Dr. Jacobo last saw a patient in her Bronx dental office for a routine procedures. She and dentists across the state were placed on "PAUSE" in mid-March, allowed only to provide urgent and emergency care.

What You Need To Know

  • Dentists return to full practice after roughly 10 weeks after being placed on PAUSE. 

  • During PAUSE, dentists could only perform emergency or urgent procedures. 

  • Mandated safety protocols aim to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as dentists return to full service.

“When I opened that door, I thought ‘Yay! We’re back!,’” said Dr. Amarilis Jacobo. "Challenging, a new everything. Not only for us but for patients as well."

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday that dentists can fully reopen their practices, as long as they follow new state and federal safety guidelines to protect against the coronavirus.

Dentists and hygienists must wear personal protective equipment, like N95 masks when performing certain procedures. And social distancing must be enforced in the office.

At Broadhollow Dentistry in Melville, chairs have been removed from the waiting room to allow six feet of space between them, magazines that could spread the virus thrown away, and a Plexiglass partition installed at the receptionist desk.

“It’s going to be a lot slower. There’s going to be pretreatment screening calls. They will have their temperature checked when they come in,” explained Dr. Chris Salierno of Broadhollow. “They may have to wait in the car cause we don’t want patients to be in reception areas because of social distancing.”

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But better to have a slow stream patients, and perhaps  a reduction in pre-pandemic income, than have nearly no dental visits or billings at all, says Dr. Craig Ratner, president of the New York State Dental Association. He says some dentists earned only 5 percent of their normal revenue over the previous ten weeks. 

“In a lot of ways now, the challenge begins. We have to figure out what that means for our dental practices going forward. We have to figure out that additional costs for PPE, still our revenue will probably be reduced because we have reduced patient flow,” Rather said. 

It is a welcomed challenge for Salierno and Jacobo. Both say they will be ready to see their patients by early next week and are prepared to take every infection-prevention step necessary. 

“I’m so happy we are doing this. Yes, we are happy,” said Jacobo.