Locking out prevention: Dental care in the midst of a pandemic.

ABSTRACT: Emergencies, such as natural and manmade disasters, can present an opportunity or be a detriment to preventive healthcare. While stay-at-home orders which some states implemented to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 are known to reduce acute and routine care, little is known about missed preventive care. Dental care, unlike other forms of preventive care - such as pediatric vaccines and well-visits, is simpler to analyze as it is not practicable with telehealth. Using weekly foot traffic data by SafeGraph from January 2018 to June 2020, we examine the effect of stay-at-home orders on visits to dental offices, finding a 15.4% decline after March 2020 for states with stay-at-home orders. Surprisingly, we find that states which allowed dental care during the stay-at-home period experienced a fu

SUBMITTER: Danagoulian S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9350414 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature