Created by Nyah Daniels
Dental health decreased because of Covid-19, the respiratory disease affected many lives. Covid-19 could be passed through respiratory or any bodily fluids from one person to another. In dentistry, dentist work in the mouths of the patients majority of the time. This caused a decrease in the amount of people going to see the dentist.
There are also many other factors that cause dental health to decrease such as:
- Oral Cancer
- Lack of oral hygiene
- Tooth Decay or loss of teeth
- Loss of Dental Coverage
In the years between 2010-2019 there is a decline of 0.5 to 1.5% and following that a drop of 4.1% from 2019-2021. This is shown one of the biggest drops in the solo dental practice from 2009-2010 which can only assume that from Covid, it created a crisis.
It is shown that Covid-19 and dental health are related, understanding that brushing your teeth versus visiting the dentist. This impacted patients ability to visit the dentist.
How can we improve dental health accessibility in rural areas?
To increase accessibility in rural areas, there are a number of programs that could be enacted. First, since short staffing is a major issue with many dental practices, a push for more spots in programs allied to dental health would be helpful. As seen in the figure below, careers allied to dental are on a downward decline.
In addition, dental therapy is a growing field that can help provide preventive and routine care. Dental therapists provide treatments such as filling cavities, creating temporary crowns, and removing loose teeth. Similar to the rise of physician assistants and nurse practitioners to fill the gap in rural primary care in the mid-1960s, dental therapists can serve to be the solution to filling the gap in rural dental care (Source).
