Today Dr. Mulligan made the decision to return to pre-Covid policies regarding masking in our office. This is a natural follow-up to the change made slightly more than a month ago when we stopped requiring patients to wear masks into the building. Generally, this means that our staff will be greeting patients without masks again (hello facial recognition and smiles!) and will put their masks on when they get their patients seated in the treatment rooms.

Prior to making both decisions Dr. Mulligan reviewed the latest CDC recommendations, the MN Board of Dentistry recommendations, and looked at what some of the leading healthcare facilities in the state are currently doing. It’s been more than six months since the CDC modified their masking recommendations and two months since the MN Board of Dentistry stopped recommending that dental staff wear masks outside of patient operatories. Minnesota’s own Mayo Clinics have also stopped requiring patients to wear masks when they enter their facilities.

We understand that Covid has not been eradicated (and like the flu, probably never will be) but since March 17, 2020 (when many doors in Minnesota were shuttered because of the pandemic) everyone learned a lot about Covid. We also have better science around viruses and infection control around the world. As an office, we took Covid safety very seriously when we prepared our personal facility plan to allow us to reopen safely. Since then, we have continued to take every modification to our plan seriously.

Caring for our patients with excellence in a safe environment is still our number one priority.

Please contact us if you have any questions.

P.S. Don’t get distracted by the monarch butterfly that recently emerged from it’s Lego pupa. It represents seeing the full beauty again, rather than the mask that is the butterflies pupa.