Dentists across metro Detroit readying to reopen

ROCHESTER, Mich. (FOX 2) - Things won't be the same at your local dentist's office when it opens back up for regular business Friday.  

We talk with Dr. Jeff Haddad, who's readying things now at his Rochester office about what will be different now during the pandemic. 

"Right away, you're going to be staying in your car until we call you in. We're not gonna have anybody in the waiting room and when you are told to come in you're going to be having your temperature taken right at the door and a questionnaire taken, just making sure that we're going through all the proper channels and making sure that everybody's safe and healthy. Then you will be escorted him out of it at that point you may notice one of our surgically clean air filtration units."

The doctor says the units take out 99 percent of viral pathogens in the air.  

"I wish we would've done this sooner to be honest. Our honest smells cleaner, feels cleaner." The hope is it will feel safer, too. 

But part of the onus is on the patients too, who will be asked to wash their hands before they sit in the dentist's chair. 

"We are going look a little different. e are going to be coming in with masks.  We are going to be wearing masks at all times. When we are handing things to them we will be wearing gloves. It's really that next level of safety."

Next-level means some hygienists will be wearing face shields, too. 

The governor had issued restrictions saying that only emergency dental procedures could be done. Now those are lifted. But they're only going to see a third of the patients they used to. 
 
Dr. Haddad says that's always been a misnomer that dentistry is all about cosmetics.  
  
"Dentistry is not elective. It's just not. Some of the things are smile makeovers and things like that but preventative maintenance, routine dentistry. This is so important to not only your oral health but your overall health and we are ready to get back to our patients because they need us."