Challenges for dental professionals during COVID‑19 pandemic: Are we prepared?
نویسندگان
1 Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopaedics, Yerala Dental College, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
2 Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology Primary Health Centre, Vaishali, Bihar, India
3 Department of Prosthodontics, Crown and Bridge and Implantology, Dental College Azamgarh, Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India
4 Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Dr. BR Ambedkar Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Patna, India
5 Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Lenoro Institute of Dental Sciences, Rajanagaram, Andra Pradesh, India
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چکیده
BACKGROUND: With the emerging knowledge and understanding of novel coronavirus infection,dentists must be capable of resuming their practice with necessary precautions in near future; hence,the aim of the present study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practices along with feltchallenges by the dentists concerning practicing dentistry during pandemic in India.MATERIALS AND METHODS: An online cross‑sectional questionnaire study was conducted onthe dental practitioners of Uttarakhand, India. The dentists were approached by obtaining theirE‑mail address from the heads of dental institutions or dental association branches in the state. Theknowledge, attitude, and practices along with apparent challenges of practicing during pandemicwere assessed using closed‑ended questionnaire. The relationship between the mean scores anddemographic variables was determined using Student’s unpaired t‑test by keeping the significancelevel below 0.05.RESULTS: Out of 759 respondents, a total of 458 respondents were male (60%), whereas 301 (40%)were female. The mean knowledge scores were higher in females (11.06 ± 2.12) compared tomales (9.72 ± 4.53), which was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The mean practice score was lowerin males (17.49 ± 6.47) compared to females (19.26 ± 6.69) and likewise lower scores were seen ingraduates compared to specialists and these differences were again statistically significant (P < 0.05).Majority of the study participants felt that following various safety guidelines were not feasible (96.97%)and too expensive (96.44%) and considered them as a challenge.CONCLUSION: It is imperative that dentists should be fully prepared before resuming their servicesand reach the right kind of awareness to limit the spread of the disease.
