Now that Utah is operating under the moderate risk category of coronavirus mitigation efforts, elective dental and medical procedures can be scheduled again.
“We’re just encouraging everyone to remember that we are here, we’re open, we’re safe," Nathan Miller said.
Miller is the manager of public relations at Brigham City Community Hospital and Cache Valley Hospital.
These hospitals are among the many in Utah that were able to resume previously scheduled and elective surgeries this month after state officials moved to the moderate category of risk category of coronavirus mitigation policies.
Miller said the hospitals have a commitment to patient safety, as well as an enhanced mask policy.
Utah was also one of the first states to allow dental offices to reopen for non-emergency procedures.
Dave Gordon is a dentist at Logan Peak Dental and said for seven weeks his office was almost entirely shut down. They reopened on Monday following Governor Herbert’s remarks that dental offices could open back up again if they took extra precautions.
Gordon said he expected the office to be closed farther into May, so the announcement took him by surprise.
“I took all of last week trying to get the PPE gathered that I would need to keep everybody safe," he said.
Gordon said his patients have been grateful to be able to get back in the office and resume care.
“It feels amazing to be back to work," he said.
Gordon said while things may not go back to the way they were for dentists before, they will get through it by maintaining confidence with their patients.
Editor's Note: An earlier web version of this story and the audio version of the story incorrectly listed the name of Cache Valley Hospital. That has since been corrected in the web version.
