Anyone that temps regularly is accustomed to change. Each office looks different, runs different, and has different supplies on hand, but you find a way to make it all work. In the past, I was pretty flexible about getting by for a day with some new equipment or unfamiliar products and protocols, but COVID made me realize that there are some products that I can’t live without.

Normal. Each day as we head back into our ops we are working to find a sense of normalcy, but it feels like curveballs keep coming our way as we navigate the reality before us. The supply chain is one thing that has been keeping us on our toes since day one.

My youngest daughter just got her driver’s license. She is finding so much joy in hopping in “her” car and just driving around. I told her about the game we used to play in high school called Right-Left-Straight, where when you pull up to an intersection and someone yells right, left or straight and you follow that to wherever it takes you.

Change is hard, and lately, life has felt like nothing but a change from our normal routine. Whether it’s how we are screening patients, the PPE we are donning and doffing, the turning over of rooms, or the pace of the office — and that’s just at work! Our home lives have been changed as well.

The Rolling Stones told us, “You can’t always get what you want.” In dentistry, I think we can all relate to not always getting what we want. New products are released at such a fast pace there’s no way we can get every exciting new toy on the convention hall floor.