During the spring and summer of 2020, routine medical appointments were canceled to keep the number of people in doctor’s offices down and allow physicians, nurses, and staff to focus on COVID-19 and other acutely ill patients.

Now that a year has gone by, however, be sure that you’re resuming those appointments if you missed one in 2020. This goes for yourself as well as the person that you are caring for.

Centers Choice Home Care has a look at three types of appointments to get back on your calendar now that it’s safe to go out again—as long as you’re vaccinated.

  1. Cancer Screenings

Studies show that nearly 300,000 breast cancer and 100,000 colon cancer screenings were missed last year. Some screenings, like cervical cancer in women, aren’t as necessary for some elderly people, unless there is a high risk. Talk with your doctor to see which screenings you need to resume, if you haven’t done so already.

  1. Dental Exams

If you haven’t resumed your six-month checkup schedule with your dentist, feel free to do so. Statistics from the American Dental Association show dentist’s offices are a safe place to be, as the COVID-19 infection rate among dentists is less than 1%.

  1. Vision Exams

Our vision is always changing, so it’s important to resume exams to keep up with those changes. Visits to ophthalmologists were down around 44 % from March-July 2019 to the same period of 2020. In addition to adjusting prescriptions and getting new frames, it’s increasingly important to see the eye doctor routinely as we age in order to catch age-related conditions like macular degeneration early.

 

To learn more about Centers Choice Home Care and all the services they offer, visit CentersChoice.com.