Trends in dental insurance claims in the United States in the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic: A 3‐year perspective (2019–2022)

Abstract

Objectives: We showed in a previous analysis the patterns of disruption for private dental insurance claims in the United States caused by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in 2020. The present report examines trends during 2020 and 2021, that is, contrasting perspectives during 2019 with the acute phase of the pandemic in 2020, and 2021. Methods: Private dental insurance paid claims from a data warehouse were obtained, encompassing a 5% random sample of records between January 2019 and December 2021 for child and adult insureds who filed a claim in 2019, 2020, and 2021. We classified claims into one of four categories based on the likelihood of being associated with urgent/emergency care. Results: The precipitous reduction in dental care claims in March-June 2020 recovered to almost pre-pandemic levels by the fall of 2020. However, a downward decline in private dental insurance claims started in the late fall of 2020 and continued through 2021. Differential impacts in dental care categories-in terms of urgency of care-were evident 2021, closely resembling previous trends in 2020. Conclusions: Dental care claims from the first year of the 2020 SARS-CoV-2 pandemic were contrasted with perspectives in 2021. A downward trend in demand/ availability changes in dental care insurance claims set in for 2021, perhaps linked to perceptions of the overall economic situation. Such downward trend has continued overall, even after considering seasonal changes and the acceleration of the pandemic during the Delta, Omicron, and other variants.

Changes in the Utilization of Outpatient and Visiting Dental Care and Per-attendance Care Cost by Age Groups During COVID-19 Pandemic Waves in Japan: A Time-series Analysis From the LIFE Study

“…In this study, we found a large decline in dental care utilization across all age groups during the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar changes in dental care utilization during the lockdown or emergency state under the COVID-19 pandemic were also reported in the previous studies conducted in Japan, 10,19 the United States, 6,8 and Canada. 9 They also reported that the decline in dental care utilization immediately recovered to the previous level.…”

“…5 Previous studies reported dental visit avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic periods. [6][7][8][9] Research conducted in Japan reported that the decrease in dental visits was limited to the short term after the outbreak. 10 Although the avoidance of dental visits is considered to differ according to the patient's susceptibility to Sars-CoV-2 infection (i.e., age or comorbidity), few previous studies have investigated the heterogeneity of dental visit avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic by the patients' characteristics.…”