Going Dental in the Pandemic Age
By Steve Bennett | July 27, 2020
A couple of months ago, the idea of going to the dentist was inconceivable. A talk with Dr. Chang, a prosthodontist and faculty member at Harvard University’s School of Dental Medicine, convinced me that a visit for a checkup and cleaning was safe. Beyond stringent check-in steps for patients and meticulous room sanitization before and after each procedure, the @dentalrestorativegroup (DRG) staff wears full protective gear from head to toe–surgical scrub cap, medical grade N95 mask covered by a standard surgical mask, face shield, full body PPE, and gloves.
To top it off, each of the DRG offices is equipped with an interesting device, the intake of which you can see in front of Dr. Chang. The intake connects to an industrial-looking vacuum unit mounted on a dolly. The vacuum draws air from the patient’s face into a system that includes microbe-trapping HEPA filters and microbe-zapping UV-C light.
Seeing all this gives me hope that between stringent processes, cooperation, and the clever use of technology, some semblance of normality may return to certain parts of our lives.
Copyright © 2020 Steven Bennett
Steve Bennett is a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based visual artist. He began taking photographs more than 40 years ago, in the age of film, and transitioned to digital photography in the late 90s. Today, in addition to taking and making traditional street, macro, and landscape photographs, he creates photo-based abstract composites designed to take viewers on fanciful flights of the imagination through virtual realms. His work has been displayed in numerous juried exhibitions, and at Google’s Kendall Square, Cambridge offices as well as various technology, biotech, and financial service companies in the Boston area.