The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on dental anesthesiologists has not been examined. This study aimed to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected Japanese dental anesthesiologists’ professional lives. An online questionnaire related to the effects of COVID-19 on dental anesthesiologists’ professional lives was emailed to 351 board-certified dental anesthesiology specialists from the Japanese Dental Society of Anesthesiology. The endpoints of this study were changes in income and job satisfaction as a dental anesthesiologist from 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 141 dental anesthesiologists participated in the survey. Most respondents reported no change in income relative to 2019 for 2020 or 2021. Significantly more dental anesthesiologists reported income decreases relative to 2019 for 2020 (39%) vs 2021 (21.3%; P = .001). Very few dental anesthesiologists reported income increases relative to 2019 for 2020 (2.1%) vs 2021 (15.6%; P < .001). Job satisfaction as a dental anesthesiologist remained unchanged for all 3 years. Even though many Japanese dental anesthesiologist specialists lost income because of COVID-19, they maintained their job satisfaction.Objective
Methods
Results
Conclusion
Map of Japan with a Regional Breakdown of Respondents
The distribution data for the 141 dental anesthesiologists who participated in the study were representative of all board-certified dental anesthesiologists of the Japanese Dental Society of Anesthesiology.
Distribution of the Degree of Income Change
In both 2020 and 2021, the largest number of respondents saw no change in income. The second largest groups for 2020 and 2021 were those whose income decreased by 5% to less than 25% as compared with 2019.
Contributor Notes
Drs Sanuki, Kuroda, and Imaizumi contributed equally to this work.