Impact on Dental Economics and Dental Healthcare Utilization in COVID-19: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Aim: The current exploratory research establishes a correlation between the general unemployment rate due to COVID-19 and its effect on dental healthcare service utilization, workforce, and education attainments. Materials and methods: The conceptual model utilized in the study is the circular flow diagram explaining economy organization. The study is an exploratory research review. PRISMA guidelines are followed for the review of articles. The literature data for the current review study is obtained from Web of Science, Statista, Grey Literature like, the Federal Bank St. Louis, American Dental Association (ADA), Health Policy Institute, to justify the economic impact in the dental industry sector. The search terms employed to search for literature from the Web of Science database are “Dental” and “COVID-19.” Only research articles published in the past one year in English language are included as the final sample of literature review. Statista, Federal Bank, and ADA are utilized to take into consideration evolving economic impact data due to COVID-19. Results: Much less of research has been performed on the impact of COVID-19 on dental economics, and this study is one of the insights of projections about COVID-19 impact in the dental healthcare sector. The projected hardships of the economy during and post pandemic demand for timely measures in place. The dental regulating bodies must undertake those protocols to save the dental healthcare industry. Conclusions: Unlike other healthcare sectors, the impact of COVID-19 will disproportionately affect the dental healthcare sector for several reasons. Given dental healthcare services aid in generating nation’s revenue like any other sector, it demands urgent actions from regulating authorities.

Impact of COVID– 19 on the Psychological Health of Dental Professionals: A Systematic Review

“…Furthermore, U.S dental care spending has been projected to decline by up to 20 percent in 2021 (Nasseh & Vujicic, 2020). According to Patel (2020), actions like these would mean high unemployment rates among dental practices, that recruit dental assistants, dental hygienist, dentists, dental assistants, and other auxiliary staff. As seen in the study conducted by Khanal and Singh (2020), where some dentists reported of losing their job or receiving no salary.…”

The research on COVID-19 and economy from 2019 to 2020: analysis from the perspective of bibliometrics

“…In the research of the impacts on finance Goodell, 2020;Haroon & Rizvi, 2020;Phan & Narayan, 2020), researchers usually took the topics on stock, currency, financial system, gold and real estate trusts, insurance, and cryptocurrency, etc., in which the focus on stock market is the most, as stock is one of the most active financial indicators (Phan & Narayan, 2020). For the research about medical and health, many researchers discussed the economic challenges of COVID-19 on different medical departments, such as elective surgery (Best et al, 2020), dental surgery (Chamorro-Petronacci et al, 2020;Patel, 2020), etc. For human resources part, researchers' attention mainly focused on the employment situations and the general impacts and fluctuations in labor market (Kaur et al, 2020;Modrego et al, 2020;Webb et al, 2020).…”

Covid-19 Pandemic and Its Effects on Dentistry: A Retrospective Study

“…These situations can lead to unpredictable longterm results such as unemployment. While the lockdowns and reductions in dental activities have a profound impact on the economy of this sector, all dental procedures during the Covid-19 outbreak should be continued with all precautions taken (32). An important consequence of this dramatic decrease in the number of treatments is that patients cannot have the necessary dental treatments, so there may be serious deterioration in oral and dental health, and advanced treatments require more costs.…”