Now Able To Administer Vaccines In 20 States, Dentists Step Up To Fight Covid-19 forbes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from forbes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
That’s the bad news.
But the good news is that the profession is emerging from the downturn and many dentists are putting 2020 behind them. Some are even doing things in 2021 to not only help their practices recover, but to also give something back to the community.
Like distributing Covid vaccines.
Michael Riccobene, who runs a family dental practice in Goldsboro, North Carolina, has been dispensing hundreds of Moderna doses since mid-April. “One thing about getting it in the dental office is people are comfortable coming there,” Riccobene told a local television station. “A lot of people [in my office] were already used to dealing with diseases, so everyone is going to be in a proper PPE.”
Dentists get creative in bid to recover from Covid downturn Gene Marks
Last year was not a good year for many small businesses – and dentists didn’t escape the downturn either.
According to a recent survey from SoftwarePundit, a technology research firm that advises dental practices, the $139bn dental industry suffered a revenue decline of about 6% in 2020 compared with 2019, with dental hygiene appointments alone dropping 47%, as some put off hygiene and other dental work during the pandemic out of health and safety fears, while others (like me) just used the pandemic as a convenient excuse to avoid an appointment that we never enjoy.