Knowledge, Awareness, and Practice of Dentists in Preventing- Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19) Transmission - A Questionnaire Based Cross-Sectional Survey.

Abstract

Background: The global issue that urges the public health emergency is the outbreak of the Novel Corona Virus strain (COVID-19). Dentists being are highly prone to airborne transmission during dental treatment due to aerosols generated by various dental procedures on patients with COVID-19. Taking this fact into consideration, the present survey research was mainly aimed at evaluating the knowledge, attitude, and practice of dentists in preventing the disease transmission of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Material and methods: The present study is prospective research, where the online survey questionnaire was distributed among 300 dentists in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states in India, who were randomly recruited for the study. The participants were recruited based on the clinical experience ranging from less than five years to more than ten years, who were working in both the private and government sectors. 15 close-ended questions were formulated and validated. The questionnaire consisted of the necessary demographic details of the participants and equally distributed into three sections that contained questions that assessed the knowledge, attitude, and practice of dentists in preventing the disease transmission of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Results: The results revealed that dentists have an adequate knowledge and awareness on COVID-19 transmission and most of the dentists felt that dentists have a major role in preventing the disease transmission. Majority of the participants raised the importance of awareness programs have to be conducted on various measures in preventing COVID-19 transmission among dental fraternity and in public. Conclusions: From the survey research it can be concluded that dentists have an adequate knowledge and awareness on COVID-19 disease. Majority of them are trying their level best in the present situation to prevent COVID-19 transmission.KeywordsCOVID-19; Dentists; Infection control.

Awareness of Aerosol related transmission of COVID-19 among the Dentists of Nepal

“…The highly contagious nature of the COVID-19 might have led the dentists to be skeptical for each dental procedure as an aerosol-generating procedure. A similar nding was observed by Teja et al, 13 where they reported that 60% of the participants felt that restorative procedures and any procedures producing aerosols have higher chances to transmit COVID-19 and 35% of them felt that surgical procedures have higher chances of the transmission of infection. 13 A total of 230 (60%) respondents were practicing only emergency dental services during the pandemic which is in accordance with CDC guidelines which states that non-emergency dental procedures should…”

“…The self-reported online questionnaire was developed by the authors after reviewing the pertinent literature. [11][12][13] The questions were prepared to emphasize the awareness related to the aerosol and ventilation system in their practice. Suggestions for improvement in the questionnaires were incorporated from subject experts and modi ed accordingly.…”

Knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding COVID-19 among dental health care professionals: a cross-sectional study in Saudi Arabia

“…Similar responses were reported in a few previous studies. 15 , 16 Although various drugs for COVID-19 are being tested, none have been approved as first-line treatment. Hence, the current treatment modality is supportive rather than imperative.…”

“…Few studies have reported a consensus of proper PPE usage among dentists. 14 , 15 As per the CDC guidelines on infection control protocols, universal precautions should be taken at all times irrespective of the pandemic or epidemic status. The highly contagious nature of COVID-19 warrants proper infection control protocols.…”

“…12,13 Thus, it is important that DHCPs are kept abreast of the latest guidelines and recommendations to effectively treat patients and simultaneously protect themselves from disease. To address these issues, studies on DHCPs of different nationalities [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] have been carried out to assess their knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) regarding COVID-19. To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies assessing practice standards of DHCPs across KSA, although Khan et al 20 assessed practice standards in the dental faculties of a single government university.…”