dentist in extremis

I made my first visit to the dentist today, for a regular cleaning, since the virus hit. They'd been closed, delaying my appointment for a month, until they could get the new hygiene protocols in place.

So now what you do is park and phone them. The receptionist comes out, takes your temperature by pointing what looks like a 50s ray gun at your forehead, and then, wearing masks, you go up to the office, opened by her key, because obviously nobody's going in without a staff escort. A quick stop at the hand sanitizer, and it's immediately into the room with the chair. The hygienist, who's been cleaning my teeth for many years, now has a face shield in addition to the mask she's been wearing on the job since the height of AIDS. You take off your own mask at her instruction, and then put it back on as soon as she's done. There's a new and more powerful suction device in the mouth, and there's no polishing afterwards, which I never liked anyways, and no consequent rinsing of the mouth. So the job is a little bit shorter, and I'm out without a fuss. I could hear the dentist in another room discussing root canals with some other patient, but I see nobody but the hygienist and the receptionist.