Aim
The novel coronavirus disease‐2019 (COVID‐19) is a major health problem and has affected innumerable people around the world. The current online‐based study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of dental students and professionals during the early days of lockdown in India from 2 April to 1 May 2020.
Methodology
An online‐based cross‐sectional study was undertaken through WhatsApp messenger and e‐mail groups among dental students and professionals. The KAP on COVID‐19 was ascertained using an investigator designed and validated questionnaire. The results were stratified based on student vs professionals. The data were expressed as frequency and percentage analysed using the chi‐square/Fishers exact test using IBM version 17. A probability value of <.05 was considered significant.
Results
A total of 287 complete responses from the dental students and professionals were received. The results indicated that the knowledge of both dental students and professionals were good and that the attitude and practice were in accordance with good clinical practice. No significant differences were found within the domains of KAP scores among the dental students and practitioners indicating that the study participants were abreast with the recent advances.
Conclusion
The results of this study conducted during the early stage of the lockdown indicated that the dental students and professionals who had filled the questionnaire had very good knowledge of coronavirus and COVID‐19.
Clinical implications
The results of the study indicate that the volunteers had good knowledge, attitude and self‐care practice, which are necessary in preventing the spread of COVID‐19. It is anticipated that detailed hands‐on training in practical aspects of good clinical practice with protective gears will help students and professionals perform the necessary dental procedures in accordance with the guidelines set by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization.
Abstract:As the importance of good dental care becomes increasingly paramount in a globally connected society, it is imperative that the dental curriculum keep up pace with it.This means that the large numbers of Indian dental graduates who pass out every year are in sync with latest in the dental world.Hence this study aims to compare the dental curriculum of the traditional Indian BDS undergraduate program with those of the developed countries (restricted to American and British universities).It goes onto highlight the strengths of each of curriculums studied. Additionally it identifies specific features of other curriculums which could be incorporated into the Indian dental curriculum.
Composite resins represent a class of material widely used in restorative dentistry, not only for anterior aesthetics but also as the first choice to restore posterior teeth. However the key limitation in the use of composite resins as a restorative material is related to shrinkage during polymerization which leads to poor marginal seal, marginal staining, restoration displacement, tooth fracture and recurring caries [1].Polymerization shrinkage may affect negatively the clinical outcome of the restoration. Hence the present study evaluates the Polymerization shrinkage of 2 different posterior composites; Filtek Z350(3M) and everX Posterior(GC), using a pycnometer.Independent Sample T-Test was used to determine statistically significant difference in volumetric shrinkage among the tested composite resins. everX Posterior showed comparatively less shrinkage than Filtek Z350; which can be attributed to the presence of silanated e-glass fibres.
Globally, the pandemic of the coronavirus disease, which started in Wuhan, China, has become a major issue for public health. The COVID-19 epidemic notably causes health professionals to experience significantly more emotional stress than the general populace. The present study proposes to investigate the fear aspect in dentists in the initiation of clinical practice during these times. An online cross-sectional study was conducted among dental practitioners based on a pre-validated questionnaire. The data were expressed as frequency and percentage analyzed using the chi-square test using SPSS version 25. The data was obtained from 271 participants, where clinical practice after the first wave was mostly by freelancers (p-value = 0.01); most of whom were married (p-value = 0.065); 19.1% attached to institutes did not have changes in earnings; 28.1% of private practitioners had less than 10% reduction in cases. A total of 62% of private practitioners are concerned about the vaccine’s preventative effects (p-value = 0.026), and 57% of private practitioners worry about being sued for the delay in treatment (p-value = 0.036). Only 33.1% of employees in institutions worry that becoming sick could endanger their family. As dentists continue to work their way through this pandemic, these pressures only occasionally have an impact on them. According to the researchers, this is the first study that has captured the anxiety and apprehensions that dental practitioners experienced during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in India in April 2021. The study’s findings demonstrate that the study population was generally upbeat and confident that they could quickly overcome their fear.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.