Evaluation of the economic impact of COVID-19 on Brazilian private dental clinics: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The changes in dental care in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the need for greater financial investment by dentists in biosafety measures and increase in the costs of dental consultations. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on dental practices in private clinics in Brazil. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out, using an online questionnaire indexed in Google Forms, and distributed among dentists. The data obtained were analyzed using the IBM SPSS 25.0 software, evaluating the factors associated with strong or very strong impact on the participants' income and the factors that motivated the dentists to look for a credit line. Multiple logistic regression models were constructed to identify the associated factors. Variables with p < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Most participants were female, with a median age of 35 years. Dentists who are most concerned about their professional future (OR = 3.134; 95% CI: 1.804-5.445), who have longer office hours (OR = 2.056; 95% CI: 1.198-3.529), who had the greatest impact on the flow of patients (OR = 16.358; 95% CI: 9.408-28.443) and in need of investing in infrastructure (OR = 1.756; 95% CI: 1.014-3.041), had the greatest impact on monthly earnings. CONCLUSIONS: The pandemic and the new biosafety recommendations for care during this period had a negative impact on the income of Brazilian dental offices and increased the chance of seeking credit to alleviate the financial deficit.