Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on dentists’ workforce confidence and workflow

摘要: BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has affected the US economy and workforce, including marked effects on small businesses. Researchers have evaluated workers’ views of financial confidence and advancement, but there has been limited focus on the dental industry.MethodsTo extend investigations to dentistry, the authors used published scales and pretested questions to determine workforce confidence and workflow changes among dentists. Data were evaluated using descriptive and bivariate statistics. In the wake of the pandemic, surveys were distributed to the memberships of the American Dental Association and American Association of Orthodontists (n = 656).ResultsDentists’ top concern was increased cost of providing treatment (57.4%; 95% CI, 53.5% to 61.3%), associated with widely adopted workflow changes including reduced patient volumes (66.0%; 95% CI, 62.4% to 69.6%) and increased …