Nearly two years into the pandemic with widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines and a decrease in infections, new studies reveal dental hygienists have low COVID-19 infection rates and high vaccination acceptance. In addition, less than half of dental hygienists that left employment early in the pandemic have returned to the workforce in 2021, and staffing challenges, exacerbated by the pandemic, persist.
The research, published in the February issue of The Journal of Dental Hygiene, is part of collaborative research efforts between the American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA) and the American Dental Association (ADA) on the impact of COVID-19 on employment, infection prevention and vaccine acceptance among dental hygienists. The data updated findings from a previous longitudinal study conducted over a 12-month period from September 2020 to August 2021 with a panel of 6,976 dental hygienists across the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
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