Samples of blood were collected from 218 villagers in the Jinning County of China, in October 2015. The villages were located in areas, in an area surrounding caves known to host SARS-related coronavirus-carrying mammals – the bats. Results from the blood samples showed that almost 3% of them possessed antibodies against the SARS-like coronavirus. But none of the people had made any form of contact with the bats or shown any form of clinical symptoms. And this was the first recorded case of the coronavirus transmission from bat to human.
The Impact it is Having Now
It’s still not known where the COVID-19 originated from. Most people claim it came out nowhere. Economists refer to such as a black swan – an event whose occurrence is rare and unforeseeable, but one that causes massive consequences. In most cases, a pandemic causes global as well as US recessions, and that’s the case during the first half of 2020. The general economy was already weak and vulnerable to anything that didn’t stick to the script before the outbreak. As we can say, COVID-19 is way off-script. There’ll be an impact on every aspect of global business as a result of the virus. Dow Jones was shut down by the virus and got spooked until it crashed 30% from the historic high attained last month. Truly, almost every sector will receive some weight from this event.
I’ll first see how COVID-19 is affecting various sectors in terms of business as well as customer behaviour, before looking at the effect on the dental profession, for the sake of comparison.
The Present as well as the Future of Dentistry
It’s right to say that dental practice owners are at the moment facing a challenge they haven’t been ready for. There isn’t a single dental school or management training program that could have envisioned a situation where there’d be this kind of prolonged period of interruption.
Patient Management
Practices are using every method they can (social media, voice messages, mailers, and practice websites) to let their patients know about office closures for everyday dentistry. Screening protocols meant for patients, for example, the one created by the American Association of Endodontists (AAE), should proceed even after lifting of restrictions.
Staff Management
Closure of the practices has resulted in the most unfortunate impact, which is on staff salaries. A lot of staff members have less wiggle room for finances. Unemployment insurance is expected to only meet part of their requirements. And because most practice owners have been affected financially as a result of the uncertainty, the steps by the federal government in the coming few weeks will be monitored closely by everyone.
The Hiring of Associates and Hygienists
A lot of confusion among dental graduates is evident, about the hiring patterns as a result of this crisis. The vacancies that arise in dental practices some the following purposes: replace an exiting associate or expand a corporate office. For the first one, there’s a greater likelihood of dentists waiting to see the response of the patients. In case they recover fast, there’ll be an urgency to hire to catch up for the lost time. It may be a bit trickier for corporate jobs. It’s most likely that practice owners and corporations will respond depending on how their financiers, such as banks, adjust to the new reality. Some are likely to expand their practices while others may wait to make a move in the future. In the beginning, the whole situation may prove to be a bit tough for dental hygienists, but it’s going to plateau soon. I believe that any such effect is going to last only for the current hiring cycle, and it’s unlikely it will extend beyond a few months.
Dental Supply Companies
Personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves, face masks, gowns and goggles, and cleaning, diagnostic, surgical as well as wound care products have been in production, mainly by big suppliers in China. Surely, there’ll be a decrease in this dependence on China. For sure, this is pretty good news for the manufacturers located in North America.
The Bottom Line
Most probably, the virus is going nowhere and it will stay with us. From dentists in Fleet to the dentists of London, there will be many changes that have to be made. There’ll be lots of behaviour changes, for example, reduced travels, less smoking, a rise in the use of pneumococcal vaccines, increased online purchases and food ordering, a rise in interest in online classes, social distancing, additional movies detailing viral outbreaks, and much more.