Kansas Report – May 2020

The governor of Kansas issued an Executive Order that effectively shuttered business in the state beginning in March. This included dental practices. Some practices remained open but they were the exception. Emergency-only care was the operating standard. The Executive Order was lifted May 3rd and the governor released responsibility for managing stay-at-home restrictions to the local government authorities from the county level to the city level.

During the stay-at-home order, the Kansas Dental Association remained in close contact with the governor’s office as well as the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. We felt this was important as it provided pertinent information from professional dental organizations such as the AAPD and the ADA to policy makers.

The KDA assembled a ‘COVID-19’ task force made up of a pediatric dentist, two oral surgeons and three general dentists. The task force developed a recommendation letter that was forwarded to Governor Kelly as well as the Secretary of the Department of Health and Environment. It appears that this letter was helpful in the governor and KDHE developing recommendations for re-opening dental practices.

The lesson learned here is that when dentists work together to develop a consistent coherent message, policy makers will listen and often incorporated the dental recommendations in their policy directives.