Background. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a global public health emergency that is affecting people across the globe.Objectives. The aim of this study was to assess the Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) of dental practitioners regarding the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-2019) pandemic.Material and methods. An online questionnaire was distributed among dentists across the globe using a combination of convenience and snowball sampling. The questionnaire was divided into 4 sections: the 1 st one contained personal information, whereas the 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th sections assessed knowledge (11 questions), attitudes (6 questions) and practices (7 questions) of the dentists. The data was subjected to the Shapiro-Wilk test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), multivariate linear regression, and Pearson' s correlation; 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated and odds ratio (OR) was obtained. The analysis was done using IBM SPSS for Windows, v. 21.0.Results. The total number of the responses received (860) was divided with regard to various continents (Asia, Americas -North and South, Europe, Africa, and other -Australia and Antarctica). The largest number of dentists came from the Asian continent (264; 30.7%). Most dentists had a degree of MDS (Master of Dental Science) (301; 35.0%), followed by BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery) (282; 32.8%) and DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery) (226; 26.3%). High/Good knowledge and practice scores were observed among 92.7% and 79.5 % of the dentists, respectively. Good knowledge scores were significantly associated with qualifications (p = 0.04) and years of practice (p = 0.02); good practice scores were associated with qualifications only (p = 0.03).Conclusions. The dentists were found to have good knowledge and practice scores, which is important to combat COVID-19. They are advised to follow the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines in their clinics, and sensitize their staff so that no stone is left unturned in defeating this pandemic.

BackgroundDue to high prevalence of oral diseases extraction of primary teeth is a common and a major concern in developing countries. These teeth are given least importance as they are believed to shed off automatically, thus leading to serious problems like crowding and malocclusion.Material and MethodsA cross sectional study was carried out among children aged 5 to 12 years among 1347 children. The data was recorded on a prestructured questionnaire. Reasons for extraction of teeth were based on Kay and Blinkhorn criteria.Results20.4% children were having tooth loss due to various reasons. The main reason for extraction was found to be caries in 64.3% followed by trauma in maxillary teeth among 43.02% of children.ConclusionsPresence of early loss of primary teeth result in occlusal disturbances and space loss among children. Hence, proper treatment regimens must be followed by the dental professionals and should be the need of the hour. Key words:Extraction, children, primary teeth, caries.

ZIKV infection, a new public health emergency, needs to be addressed urgently. All health care professionals should have adequate knowledge of the virus and be conversant with necessary precautionary measures to be taken making it imperative that dental practitioners strive to continually update their knowledge from time to time.

Dental caries is a common dental public health problem significantly found in both developed and developing countries. It is a dental disease which affects all ages but is particularly found in children. The study aimed to assess the caries prevalence and oral hygiene status in 7-12 years old school children of rural and urban areas of Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh India. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out in school children who aged 7-12 years from rural and urban areas of Gautam Budh Nagar. A sample of 1003 school children was done by 2 stage cluster sampling technique. School children who aged 7-9 years were included in Group I, whereas 10-12 years included in Group II. Examination of dental caries and oral hygiene status was done by the WHO proforma 2013. Chi-square test was used for statistical analysis. Results: The prevalence of dental caries was 69.8% and 51.9% in the age group of 7-9 and 10-12 years, respectively. Mean decayed/missing/filled teeth were higher among urban school children as compared to rural school children and mean oral hygiene index-simplified (OHI-S) was more in rural school children as compared to urban school children. Conclusion: The prevalence of dental caries in urban school children was higher than rural school children with good oral hygiene. Oral health education and promotion should be done in regular intervals for creating awareness.

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