ENERGY (WSIL)--Dental offices were forced to shut down last March. Two months later, patients began returning and cleaning practices became more important than ever.
Now, about half of dental practices are back open and running.
At this time last year, about 80% of dentists in Illinois were only seeing patients on an emergency basis.
Dr. Don Guebert's office in Energy used their two month closure to ramp up their cleaning procedures.
But as they began to open again, Dr. Guebert saw his normal amount of patients return to get their teeth checked and cleaned.
"Very few and far between have I encountered anyone who is resistant to coming back yet. It's been a good response, but yes it's been trying for everybody," said Dr. Guebert.
Dentists already took many safety precautions to prevent illnesses passing from dentists to patients, but the pandemic caused them to take new safety measures such as double masking.
And dentists aren't the only one's who saw a drop.
An Associated Press poll shows that almost half of those polled have delayed medical care during the pandemic.
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