COVID-19’s Continuing Ripple

When the pandemic struck, department stores already on the verge of bankruptcy (such as J.C. Penney) quickly went under.

That was 2020.

In 2022, the fallout continues.

Dr. Lane, a single-practitioner dentist, had a nice office in Charlestown and three permanent employees.

Then came the pandemic.

Appointments were canceled left and right by frightened patients.

The dentist herself had to pause her practice until medical guidelines could be established (such as the head shield she started wearing) and hygienic practices adjusted.

But the real kicker is that dental hygienists – the folks who clean your teeth professionally – became harder to find. The ranks of hygienists quickly thinned.

Can’t blame them. In those pre-vaccination days, who would want to put their hands into the mouths of total strangers?

The hygienists who remained found their services were in constant demand. Some drove all over the state, holding down positions at two or three dental practices.

Newspapers – including the Eagle Times – contained ads trying to locate dental hygienists. But they weren’t to be found.

Dr. Lane’s hygienist parted ways with the practice. Dr. Lane replaced her at first with a newcomer who came in just one day a week.

But that wasn’t viable for the long term. A backlog of patients needing cleaning quickly accumulated.

I was one of those patients. I tried other dental offices, asking if I could have my teeth cleaned. They said sorry, the dentists weren’t accepting new patients. I said I already had a dentist, I just needed a hygienist.

Nothing doing, I was told. If I wasn’t a patient of the dentist, then the hygienist there would not be allowed to clean my teeth.

Eventually, even the one-day-a-week hygienist stopped showing up at Dr. Lane’s practice. That meant all the cleaning had to be done by Dr. Lane herself.

All dentists can clean teeth. It’s part of their training.

But as a consequence of Dr. Lane’s having to become her own hygienist, the practice’s income plummeted. You see, cleaning, although necessary, isn’t what pays the bills. It’s the dental work itself that makes a practice profitable.

And Dr. Lane, once she started doing the cleaning, did not have the time to do nearly as much dental work as in the past. Incoming revenue slowed down.

Soon enough the dentist with three employees could afford only one – who I’m sure was doing the work of one and a half.

Then there was a spell when the dentist and her remaining employee both had COVID. More lost time.

In January 2022, Dr. Lane sent a letter to her patients. The practice, started by her father fifty years ago, was closing.

The letter, dated January 5, explained: “There has been added stress on those remaining team members to maintain a quality experience for our patients.”

Stress is not healthy. Dr. Lane decided to focus more on her own health and her family.

The letter named January 25 as the closing date. After that, emergency care was provided for another month, but no new mouth projects were begun.

My wife was the only patient on February 18, for a follow-up visit regarding a newly installed crown (which was at the dental lab when the letter was mailed). After that, Dr. Lane’s practice had only one more appointment, set for February 25.

So what becomes of the dentist and her last remaining employee?

The employee is looking for work. Without daycare, it will be hard. She had been allowed to have her school-age children walk over after school to the dental practice, where she minded them with one eye and worked with the other.

Dr. Lane herself will still be performing dentistry, but not as an individual practitioner. She has joined a dental facility in Keene. Her patients were invited to follow, but for many that’s just too far away.

My last conversation with Dr. Lane was to commend her for her outstanding chair-side manner and to ask for recommendations of dentists closer to home for us. She provided three, and we’ll be using one of them starting in July.

Ripples from the pandemic continue to spread.