Experts project a widening in oral health disparities amid the pandemic, according to U.S. News & World Report.
"There were already some underlying trends that I think COVID-19 is going to exacerbate," said James Crall, DDS, chair of the Division of Public Health and Community Dentistry at the University of California-Los Angeles. Dr. Crall said that includes government policies that incentivize teeth repair instead of improving access and emphasizing prevention.
Black Americans are more likely than white citizens to have untreated tooth decay, while older Black adults are more likely to cite cost as a barrier to care, U.S. News reports.
Some patients in Black and Latino communities with high infection rates are anxious about going in for dental work. The delayed opening of schools may also mean at-risk children won't receive screenings or preventive treatment from school clinics.
Additionally, current CDC guidelines for resuming non-urgent care require expensive protective gear and providers to weigh "the risk to the patient of deferring care." Dentists who don't make as much treating poorer patients likely will struggle to comply, and some may be forced to close.