Waiting............

Waiting. None of us likes waiting. Waiting in lines. Waiting in traffic. Waiting in waiting rooms with lots of other people. All sitting there, wondering about each other. What are they here for? How long have they been here? Are they waiting for an appointment or for someone who is already being taken care of? And what exactly do you do in a waiting room - read old magazines? Drink from the water cooler , way too much water, which then brings us to leaving the waiting room to use a bathroom, and possibly miss being called. This starts another conundrum, of then waiting to use the bathroom until we are called, at which time we as where is the bathroom...... Oh, so many issues.

Well, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed many things for us in the dental office, especially in the waiting room. We can't have people sitting near each other. Social distancing issues. We can't have magazines (even though we find it very important to keep only the most current and relevant magazines in our waiting room), for fear of contamination of the surfaces. We even removed our water cooler for that same reason - no logical way to sanitize it. So we asked ourselves - why are we keeping this room at all?

We aren't. We are making a bold move and removing our waiting room.

Yes, you heard it right. We are making our waiting room into a treatment room so that we can have no waiting at all, and have patients fo directly into the treatment room and we can better schedule our patients. Our front desk will also have larger work space, and be able to see out the front window to see patients as they come in. This is a big move for our little practice in the heart of Darien, CT. The building once was the home of 8 apartments, back int he 1940's. Then things got sophisticated and the building became offices. Three dentists moved in, along with other offices. Now we are able to use what was once our neighbor's space across the hall (there is still a doorbell at the front door!) for extra storage and work space. Apartments are coming back to the neighborhood, thanks to the Corbin District project. Things are coming full circle, but not the waiting room. That idea is over.

So although none of us likes to wait, now I am waiting. Waiting for the renovation to be completed. It started about a week ago, and we have a few weeks to go. Our new world of dentistry will take time for everyone to get used to, but I think they will like it very much.