I hope this helps: think that your patients need you to be there for them, and know that you actually care.

During the early days of pandemic in 2020 where everything was closed, I suffered a chipped molar that rapidly infected over a week. I can't chew on this side of the mouth, painkillers last only an hour, and food gets into the whole every time. I developed TMJ misalignment from chewing from the other side, had inflamed throat from dehydration and drinking with alcohol the pain away, and can barely yawn without my jaw locking. Mid-meal i would almost choke when my jaw suddenly lock, along with tears from eyes from the painful infected tooth.

My regular dentist won't see me, no dentist from the company HMO wont see me. After a month I managed to contact a dentist that reluctantly agreed to put a temporary filling (after I must get RTPCR and tested for negative covid, which was difficult since I followed the lockdown faithfully), which eased the pain for a while and helped ease the chewing on this side.

When the lockdown ( a few months later), I got hold of a dentist with 5 stars on Google who mentioned they are still open. Kinda violating the ordinance about aerosols ban in dental offices, but I will keep my mouth shut if they would agree for an appointment. The dentist helped root-canal my molar, and set another appointment for cleaning and identifying wisdom teeth (2-3) that need to be pulled, and the corresponding appointment for rebuilding my dentures to adjust to these (these wisdom teeth were anchors). We completed all these appointments, and even without getting infected with Covid. He was always also cheerful whenever I arrive.

What made the difference for me is that dentist listened to this long story, no judgment, and even soothed me during the pain during root canal and the wisdom teeth extraction, and worse, the teeth molds (I have a very bad gag reflex from the inflamed throat and trauma from almost drowning once). I could say this guy literally saved my life during the pandemic.

Hope this helps give you an idea of how your patient is most of the time, your best focus for you to perform, and for you to manage too.