Yeah - when I have been somewhere they make me put a blue one on, it just goes over whatever I already have.
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Because they have a poorly formulated policy that the staff are strictly enforcing without thinking about / understanding the actual situation?
Or maybe there’s a valid reason, but that’s all I’ve got.
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Does anyone have a “best guess” of when Universal might go back to recommending but not requiring masks in all situations? I’m trying to look back at the timing of their previous changes and how they coincided with previous waves. What metrics are they looking at to guide their policy, if anything? Just curious since I’m headed there in about 6 weeks and would like to have a reasonable expectation of what the policy might be at that point.
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I think they have historically been less conservative than the CDC guidelines but I haven’t tracked closely.
Here are the CDC guidelines for what that’s worth.
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My completely wild guess based on history this summer is that they will lift the requirement by the end of February unless the next variant causes a significant follow-up wave.
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I’d be interested if anyone who has kids (or, themselves) have orthodontia during the pandemic has any advice about what might be different / how to stay safe. We’ve been putting of DS15’s braces (which he really needs for a variety of reasons) for 2 yrs now b/c of the pandemic and wouldn’t have thought about it except for now another child has an immediate, undeniable need for braces. So, I’m thinking maybe to just do both at the same time since we’ll be going there a lot anyway. I know from my (1980s) experience having braces that once they get them on most of the appts are very short. Is that still true? Overall I don’t feel that worried but this is something I’d been intending to wait on, except now we can’t wait. However, we do still have the option of waiting more with DS15—except that I just realized that if we wait too long he’d still have them when going to college, and I definitely want this done before then. Wow that crept up on me when I was thinking about the pandemic and not long term about all the other stuff we have to get done. I have no idea what my son’s post high school grad plans might turn out to be yet, so I don’t know if he’d live nearby, etc.
My son has had braces - for what seems like forever - and especially during Covid. I’m actually hoping they’ll come off tomorrow!
Anyway, his appointments have been fast. They alternate - 15 minutes one month and a little longer, maybe 30 - 45 the next. I sit in the car, and (I think) he wears his mask inside unless someone is actively working on his teeth.
Around here, all of the medical staff wear masks, all of the time, so that has never been a concern for me. We do go to a fairly small practice, so there aren’t a lot of other people there at the same time.
Do you have a provider picked out? Maybe you could check out their normal practices and see how comfortable you feel. Our dentist has separate rooms for each patient, but ortho is all in one room.
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My kids had partial braces with an expander before the pandemic. They took a bit to put on, and had molds and such completed over several appointments as a part of it. For follow up appointments, yes they are pretty quick. My kids still go to check in on how their permanent teeth are filling in (they are still losing teeth). One of them is getting a “permanent”retainer because he is about to lose a bunch of teeth at once and they don’t want anything shifting until the permanents come in. He gets that in a couple of weeks. We also go to the dentist and have gone several times since the offices opened back up. We have not had any issues with these appointments. I wouldn’t put it off if your child needs braces.
Everyone wears masks at our ortho and dentist unless their teeth are being worked on.
My GD has braces. Their family is VERY cautious but felt perfectly safe at the orthodontist. Their orthodontist moved the chairs further apart, and has everyone stay in their cars to wait (text them when it’s time to come in) and everyone is masked who is not being worked on.
My personal opinion is that orthodontics is an essential service and should never be delayed for very long - although it seems cosmetic and a luxury, it can cause all sorts of peripheral health issues. If all people are vaccinated, there’s no reason to be overly concerned.
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I had a conversation with my dentist about the risk (albeit pre-omicron). He follows the literature and said transmission traced to dental procedures is really low. They already followed pretty strict procedures, and most have stepped them up since covid.
That said, it does vary from office to office, so I would call and ask the perspective ortho what their procedures are.
My dentist and our pediatric one both require masking by everyone except while procedures are being performed. (I’ve observed desk staff occasionally slip them down if struggling with a phone call, but only temporarily and not while within 6’.)
My dentist also has a HEPA air unit in each exam area (rooms without doors).
Conversely, the first time I took DS17 to the ortho during the pandemic (May 2020), NONE of the office staff were masking at all. At the other extreme, our pediatric dentist was having us wash hands upon entering, giving us a fresh pen to keep when completing paperwork, etc.
I talked to the pediatric dentist staff about the ortho experience (they refer lots of patients there and take their own kids there), and they agreed to have a peer-to-peer discussion. Much better procedures seemed to be in place next time we went.
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I’ll second Susan’s description of tactics, our doctor did the same thing. My daughter had to have an emergency fix of her braces in the Spring the pandemic started - she was nervous but they did a very good job of managing the risks. Since then we’ve been back a few times - always all masked, limited people in at a time, very quick. She got hers off a few months back, no issues.
Parents and I both got our free test kits. Both were BinaxNow brand. No one else we know has received theirs yet though which is weird.
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CONTEXT: Our family has been reasonably cautious. My husband and I have both worked remotely since the pandemic started, but my two kids are attending school in person (last year was a mix of in person and remote, mostly based on the need to quarantine) and masks have been required all year.
We have all seen our regular dentist since May 2020 when they re-opened, and we’ve kept annual physicals, eye appointments, and routine screenings such as my annual mammogram. For me personally, I weighed the potential risks of getting COVID vs. not doing these routine healthcare appointments and decided to get them done. I wear the best mask I have, try to be as quick as possible, cancel and reschedule if someone is not feeling well (like when my son developed a cough and runny nose that after multiple tests was not COVID), and keep my hands clean.
ACTUAL ANSWER: My husband, older son, and I were all fully vaxxed by mid-May, so I decided in July 2021 to move forward with ortho treatment that I need since I was a kid but was never able to afford. We were also prepared to have our 17 year old begin treatment, so he went with me to the initial appointment, but he has since declined (long story, he is a difficult kid). Anyway, our experience with our ortho’s office is that masks have been worn by all staff since I started going in July, and there is plexiglass up at the front counter, and it appears to be kept reasonably clean. They still have patients use a common keyboard to type their name to check in, which I am not a huge fan of, but there’s sanitizer right next to it, as well as throughout the office. They don’t have any chairs blocked off in the waiting room, though there have only ever been two other patients in there at the same time I was, and that was only one time. The treatment room has five or six chairs, but there have never been more than two other patients there at the same time as I was. They had relaxed mask rules to be optional for patients who had been vaccinated, for like a month, but they tightened back up when we had our Delta spike in fall, and they’ve not relaxed them since then. Wearing the mask is not a big deal for me; I’d rather wear a mask than shoes and socks, but I currently wear both in public, and of course, I digress.
At our regular dentist, upon entering, they administer a COVID symptoms questionnaire, take your temperature, and require all to sanitize their hand. Allegedly all staff and patients must wear masks, but twice in the last two months I was in there, twice there were older patients walking around unmasked.
We are looking for a new pediatric dentist for my son, and the place we are looking at has a COVID section on their website. They’ve improved the filtration system, all staff wear masks, they require you to text from your car to check in, and then patients entering are supposed to wear a mask unless they are being worked on. They also limit a child to only one parent to accompany them, I imagine to cut down on the number of people in the office. Anyway, I appreciated the info provided about the air filtration system, and I like text from your car (even if there was no COVID, I would prefer this).
Also, our first ortho appointment took awhile (maybe an hour) because they went over our paperwork, took panoramic x-rays of both of us, reviewed them with us, and wrote treatment plans while we were there. The appointment where they put on my top braces, and the one where they put on my bottom braces also took about an hour each. They change my archwire every 5-6 weeks and those appointments take about 20 minutes.
As others have said, I encourage you to check online to see what, if anything, they have posted on their website, and depending on what you learn, ask what measure or precautions are being taken, as it seems to vary.
If I was at all unclear about anything, which I sometimes am (I ramble) let me know and I can try to clarify.
Good luck in making your decision!
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I just received mine today. I also got 2 boxes of BinaxNow.
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I greatly appreciate all the answers to my Q about braces. Everything everyone is saying sounds like our experience here with our dentist and the new orthodontist. Since we live in a city area we have a choice of many orthodontists and have already rejected one partly b/c she always has tons of people in her waiting room, not very well spaced. I am very pleased with the one we chose and I think they may be even being too careful, b/c if one of my kids is a close contact (even if it isn’t the one being seen) then we can’t be seen in their office for 10 days. The office is very clean and they didn’t have very many people waiting either time we came there. I really have to do this for DS13 and now with your responses I feel more confident to get my other 2 kids evaluated again (they were seen a few years ago and DS15 absolutely needs braces while the younger child might still be too young). Like others responding, we have kept our regular dental appts and most routine appts and screenings since things reopened. My most traumatic experience of the pandemic (that was definitely pandemic related) was when DH broke a molar tooth very early on, I think during summer 2020, while almost all dentists here were still closed. I have a relative who’s a dentist (far away) and he recommended that we sacrifice the tooth (extraction, which is the only thing our dentist would do) b/c the risk of catching the virus was too high. He also thought maybe DH could just wait a month or two for the virus to go away (ha!). DH decided to save the tooth and it took awhile but we found a dentist who would actually do a crown. It’s such a basic thing to need and it was awful not having it readily available. I remember that at the same time people on this forum (the 1st thread) were saying that they had kids who had braces who couldn’t get them adjusted, and it was difficult even when there was an emergency to get treatment for the braces. That’s been in the back of my head during these decisions. But, I truly don’t see things shutting down like that again.
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Well, for anyone trying to stalk BA.2 
, the CDC is annoyingly lumping all the Omicron variants together.
I found this alternate site:
An assorted sampling of states…
ETA:
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2/2 White House briefing. The slide pack wasn’t linked like it usually is, so I grabbed screen shots of the more interesting slides where possible.
Cases slide wasn’t shown so verbal description:
“The current seven-day daily average of cases is about 446,400 cases per day, a decrease of about 36 percent over the previous week.”
Dr. Fauci went over a couple recent studies showing vaccinations do NOT have a negative impact on fertility. (Infection may temporarily have a negative impact.)
Q …When you said “short order” for the availability of those kid vaccines, I was hoping — do you mean like a week or a few days?
MR. ZIENTS: Yeah, so, on the vaccines for kids under five, we’re doing all the preparation now that we can do to be ready so that it’ll be available at trusted locations as soon as possible, post — I want to emphasize again — FDA and CDC recommendations.
We cannot begin actually packing and shipping until the FDA authorization, and then there’s the CDC ACIP process, which generally takes place a matter of days after the FDA.
So, we’re talking, you know, a matter of several days to a week or so, based on the 5- to 11-year experience from FDA authorization to when the first doses will start to be shots in arms. But we’ll move as fast as possible, pending the decision of CDC and FDA. And I think the preparation we’re doing now will enable us to do so.
SURGEON GENERAL MURTHY: …Something that many parents may be wondering about, which is: What’s changed between December when Pfizer shared their news and now?
And they’re — it’s a big change that’s happened, which is we experienced the Omicron surge. And with many children in particular, as well as adults, being infected and ending up in the hospital during the Omicron surge, it turns out that has actually facilitated the collection of important clinical data, additional clinical data that we did not have in December. Whether that changes the risk-benefit profile is what the FDA will be assessing. But there has been developments since December on the data front.
Q Is there a sense yet that you can offer the American public based upon your studies, based upon what you now know about Omicron — you know, is this the last wave? Is there enough that you can say, by a point certain, COVID will not impact people’s daily lives anymore? And if not, you know, why not? What else do you need to know?
DR. FAUCI: Well, we have to be totally honest that we don’t know whe- — we believe that we are now going in the right direction. And the best-case scenario, as I and my colleagues have often described, is that with the tools that we have — the vaccination, the boosting, the testing, the masking, and all the other mitigations that we know about — when you have a level of community protection, which is the level of immunity throughout the community, that we will reach a stage — and I hope that it’s sooner rather than later — when, as you have said, this will not dominate our lives. In other words, it will be similar to the assimilation of this virus, in the group of viruses that we have learned to live with, without disruption of our society.
You know, the RSVs, the parainfluenzas — the influenzas where it’s there, it’s present, it hasn’t been eradicated, it hasn’t been eliminated, but it isn’t at a level that it essentially dominates what we do and dramatically influences our lives.
We believe we will get there.
We can’t guarantee that there will not be another variant that challenges us, but the best that we can do with that is to be prepared for it. And that’s why we’re doing all the things that we’re doing with regard to getting better, more advanced vaccine. For example, different platforms, different immunogen designs, development and discovery of new drugs — all of that will be part of the armamentarium that will ultimately, even with the appearance of additional variants, will get us to the point where we will not be dominated by this virus; where we can return to a degree of normality that we all crave for.
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