Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed an order March 23 banning dental providers from performing non-emergency procedures until April 13, dramatically decreasing patient numbers and shutting down some practices completely, according to the Memphis Business Journal.
"Game over. That's it," Kyle Fagala, DDS, said after receiving a March 16 email from the American Dental Association recommending dental practices only perform emergency procedures.
"You may go from seeing 70 to 90 patients a day, and then you're able to see three," Dr. Fagala, orthodontist and president of the Memphis Dental Society, told the Memphis Business Journal.
Dr. Fagala is now conducting orthodontic appointments virtually, developing remote visit guidelines for others and organizing a virtual meeting focusing on mental health for orthodontists.
Todd Higginbotham, DDS, a dentist with nine offices across Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri, had to shut down all locations and temporarily lay off staff.
"I graduated [from dental school] in 2002 … and in all my years of dentistry nothing has been harder," Dr. Higginbotham said of the layoffs.
However, in light of the $2.2 trillion stimulus package passing, Dr. Higginbotham hopes to get his entire team back on payroll. The Paycheck Protection Program, intended to help retain employees, provides about $350 billion in small business loans. For businesses that already laid off workers, the full amount of payroll costs of workers rehired by June 30 can be forgiven.