Dentists around Fort Dodge started to close Wednesday after the Iowa Dental Association recommended postponing non-urgent treatment for three weeks to help reduce the spread of coronavirus.

In addition to IDA recommendations, the American Board of Dentistry and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recommended not seeing patients unless they are in pain or need emergency care.

Several dental practices in Fort Dodge sampled by The Messenger said they would be closing immediately for various lengths of time — some for less than three weeks, some for more.

“The wisdom is that nobody likes it — it will hurt a little bit — but we need to follow what the government is asking us to do if we’re going to dumb down this curve,” said Dr. Matt Maggio, whose practice is located on Kenyon Road near St. Paul Lutheran Church.

The “curve” he refers to comes from CDC projections showing how dramatic isolation and quarantine measures can flatten predicted spikes of COVID-19 infections enough to avoid exhausting local health care systems. Models are based in part on information from how the pandemic has already detrimentally played out in other countries like China and Italy.

Maggio said that even if Iowa is ahead of the game of rapid reactions with new closures each day to beat the virus, that’s part of the point: to stop the spread in its tracks.

“These are exceptional times, I’m going to be here to care for my patients,” he said.

Dentists surveyed said they will remain open for limited hours with a skeleton crew of staff to assist with dental emergencies.

“This has been such a fluid situation that it has changed every 12 hours,” said Dr. Nick Drzycimski, who runs Rolling Hills Dental Clinic with his daughter, Dr. Maria Drzycimski.

Their practice will be closed until March 25, at which point they will reevaluate the rapidly changing situation. The dentist said the temporary measures would primarily reduce health risks to dental staff.

“I’m just taking a week at a time,” he said. “It’s a snowballing thing.”

After similar closures in Illinois, Minnesota and Nebraska, he believes Iowa is following suit.

“I think what happened in big populated areas (with coronavirus spread) is dictating everything else,” he said.

Also among the dental clinics closing is the one run by Community Health Center, where routine appointments have been canceled for the next three weeks.

The clinic is one of the CHC’s busier ones, according to Regina Suhrbier, outreach coordinator.

“We’re going to be even busier once things can get back on track,” she said. “We reach a population underserved by other dental opportunities in the area.”

In contrast, the CHC has expanded its medical clinics, operating medical offices seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. indefinitely.

“Everyone just stepped up,” Suhrbier said of staff during a time of high demand to accommodate expanded hours. “We have amazing staff willing to do what is needed at this time for the community.”

Staff members affected by the temporary closures, particularly dental hygienists, dental assistants and front-facing office staff not needed for emergency work, can apply for unemployment insurance benefits under new rules implemented by the state of Iowa to mitigate the impact of the pandemic crisis.