Dentists’ Working Conditions during the First COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown: An Online Survey

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the operating conditions of dentists in Central Europe during the first coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown. A survey including 24 questions was emailed to dentists in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and South Tyrol (Italy). Questions regarding dentists’ field of work, working hours, treatments performed, personal protective equipment and protocols, and economic consequences were asked. 1731 participants were included. 30.4% of participants worked mainly in Austria, 60.8% in Germany, 6% in Switzerland and 2.1% in South Tyrol. A country-specific analysis for the situation of South Tyrol was not possible due to the low participation; 53.7% of German, 45.5% of Austrian, and 11.7% of Swiss respondents reduced their working hours; 42.8% of Austrian, 41.5% of Swiss, and 17.3% of German participants closed their offices temporarily; 52.2% of respondents provided emergency service including pain management, restorations/temporaries, and denture repairs. A lack of access to FFP2/FFP3 (filtering facepiece) respirators was indicated by 59.4% Austrian, 38.0% German, and 11.7% Swiss dentists (<i>p</i> < 0.001). FFP2/FFP3 respirators were, when available, most frequently used in Austria (86.9%), followed by Switzerland (61.2%) and Germany (56.7%) (<i>p</i> < 0.001). Financial consequences could not be conclusively quantified by 58.6% of the participants. Most respondents in all partaking countries made use of governmental support. A lack of blueprints/guidelines resulted in heterogeneous working conditions. In consideration of a potentially high risk of infection in the dental setting, non-emergency dental treatments were largely suspended in all participating countries.

Knowledge and Attitude of Polish Dental Healthcare Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Our study found a reduction in the number of admitted patients during the first wave of the pandemic, which is consistent with other studies [9,39,[46][47][48][49][50]. Earlier research on the Polish dentists conducted at the beginning of the pandemic showed that as many as 71.2% of them completely suspended their practice in response to the pandemic [9].…”

Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Working Conditions of Dentists in Poland and Turkey

“…The high risk of infection in the dental working conditions in Austria, Germany and Switzerland was acknowledged in this study as well as the need of evaluation of the number of infections among dentists in other European countries was mentioned. Also previously mentioned studies suggest more researches on the influence of pandemic on dental working environment should be carried out [ 8 , 9 , 15 ]. Thus our study reports data from two countries in Europe and allows making primary conclusions on how the working conditions of the dentists were affected by COVID-19.…”

SARS-CoV-2 IgG Amongst Dental Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The range of dental services provided in the office as part of general primary care, dental surgery, paediatric dentistry and conservative dentistry was limited to procedures necessary in cases of urgent need for intervention: i.e. pain, inflammation and purulent processes, injuries, cysts, and conditions with risk of complications in patients 32 , 33 .…”