DH and I had our semi-annual dental cleaning/checkup yesterday. Both appointments were originally scheduled last April for October 30. Several days prior, we were contacted and told that the appointments had to be cancelled and were rescheduled for the following day (Halloween). A couple of days later. we got another call to say that there would not be a hygienist available that day, so we scheduled back-to-back appointments for Saturday, November 11. We didn't realize that our dentist would actually do our cleanings and were quite surprised, to say the least. Turns out that one of the two hygienists left for another job (more money), and Dr. S hasn't been able to find a replacement. It seems that, post-covid, many trained hygienists are no longer interested in cleaning people's teeth and that there is a shortage of hygienists in metro Detroit. What was once a popular full- or part-time job for (mostly) women no longer has that same appeal. With the loss of the second hygienist, the office is swamped and has had to reschedule dozens of cleaning appointments, so Dr. S is cleaning teeth on Saturdays until he finds a new hygienist. Our next cleanings are already scheduled for May, 2024. For now, they are back-to-back appointments unless there's a second hygienist on the team. We liked having simultaneous cleanings when there were two hygienists. The fallout from Covid is more widespread than we thought. JMO