Role of Teledentistry in COVID-19 Pandemic: A Nationwide Comparative Analysis among Dental Professionals

Abbas, Beenish; Wajahat, Mehreen; Saleem, Zakia; Imran, Eisha; Sajjad, Mehvish; Khurshid, Zohaib

doi:10.1055/s-0040-1722107

Cited by 56 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Although a number of surveys on dentists’ perception of the use of teledentistry in practice have been published in recent times (Abbas et al 2020; Byrne and Watkinson 2020), comparing the changes in the knowledge and attitudes of dentists toward TD before and during the COVID-19 pandemic have thus far not been studied. Access to this information may help policy makers, health service managers, and clinicians to foster the general adoption of TD during and after this pandemic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of COVID-19 on the Knowledge and Attitudes of Dentists toward Teledentistry

Plaza-Ruíz

Barbosa-Liz

Agudelo‐Suárez

2021

JDR Clinical & Translational Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created a new scenario for dental practice, and teledentistry (TD) is a field of relevance for dentists. Objective: To evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the knowledge, practices, and expectations of dentists toward TD and its association with sociodemographic variables. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered to dentists in Colombia as part of global research on the impact of COVID-19 on dentistry. The core questionnaire included 5 additional questions on TD that were added by the Colombian research team in 5 domains about TD: Q1, knowledge; Q2, practices; Q3, expectations; Q4, usefulness; and Q5, reimbursement. Sociodemographic variables were also measured. The questionnaire was validated in a pilot test and administered via digital media. Descriptive and bivariate analysis for sociodemographic and TD variables were done. For the evaluation of the chances of a determined answer, an ordinal multinomial logistic regression (Q1 and Q2) and binomial logistic regression (Q3 and Q5) analyses were made. Results: In total, 5,370 dentists answered the survey (women: 3,878; mean age: 45 y). The response rate of the survey was 16.84%. Knowledge and practice of TD before the COVID-19 pandemic were both low (25.75% and 12.42%, respectively); however, since the beginning of the current pandemic, knowledge increased by 62.72% and practice by 42.53%. Some 93.1% of respondents considered that TD could be useful in their clinical practice, and 59.55% would consider practicing it after the pandemic. A high number of dentists (88.58%) did not charge for these services. Logistic regressions showed significant differences according to sociodemographic variables. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact on TD, increasing knowledge and practice significantly. Dentists expect to continue practicing TD in the future. However, some geographical, technological, and attitudinal barriers need to be broken down to increase daily use of TD. Knowledge Transfer Statement: This article provides an overview about the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in the knowledge and attitudes about teledentistry (TD) in general dentists and both clinical and nonclinical specialists. Although some barriers to the use of TD continue, this pandemic brought with it a new scenario for dental practice, which must be implemented through training for professionals to increase its use.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of COVID-19 on the Knowledge and Attitudes of Dentists toward Teledentistry

Plaza-Ruíz

Barbosa-Liz

Agudelo‐Suárez

2021

JDR Clinical & Translational Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“… 6 Another emerging modification during the pandemic was the implementation of teledentistry, which has been widely utilized to remotely assess and triage patients to minimize exposure. 7 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge and Perceptions of COVID-19 Among Health Care Professionals, Medical Students, and Dental Students in the GCC Region: A Cross-Sectional Correlational Study

Abdulwahab¹,

Kamal²,

AlAli³

et al. 2021

JMDH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose The aim of this study was to assess the levels of awareness and knowledge regarding COVID-19 among healthcare professionals and students in Kuwait and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Materials and Methods An online cross-sectional survey using a previously validated questionnaire was used to assess the awareness and knowledge levels of COVID-19 in this study, which was distributed via various online platforms to include as many participants as possible. The study targeted medical doctors, dentists, medical students, and dental students from the GCC region. Participants were at least 18 years old, voluntarily consented to complete the questionnaire, and were assured that their responses would remain anonymous. Permission was obtained using a previously validated and applied questionnaire to assess their level of awareness and knowledge regarding COVID-19. To compare the proportional responses between groups in descriptive statistics, a proportion Z-test was used to find any significant differences, with a statistical significance set at p < 0.05. Results A total of 1621 participants responded to our questionnaire. Almost two-thirds of the respondents were female (64.4%), and the majority were less than 25 years old (67.2%). Dentists accounted for 12.6% of the total population, and their clinical experience ranged from 0.25 to 52 years (median: 3 years, IQR: 1–10 years). Meanwhile, medical doctors accounted for 24.5% of the responses, and their clinical experience ranged from 0 to 50 years (median: 13 years, IQR: 3–23 years). Among the dental students, 42.3% were in the pre-clinical years, while 57.7% were in the clinical years of study. However, among medical students, 57.5% were in the pre-clinical years, while 42.5% were in the clinical years of study. Conclusion Our results demonstrated that dental students, medical doctors, and medical students exhibited higher odds of having satisfactory COVID-19 perception scores than dentists.

show abstract

“…In these cases, case presentation, and discussions could be done using online platforms (ZOOM, Webex, Microsoft Teams) ( 20 ). This approach can aid in conducting problem-focused interactions with students without the need of their physical presence ( 21 , 22 ). On the other side, the therapeutic clinical training in the university clinics represented the main challenge for clinical dental education, specially the management of bio-aerosol, the insurance of the dental team compliance with the obligatory additional infection control measures, the application of social distancing policies to reduce overcrowding in the clinic, and thus reduce the exposure to others as well as the bio-aerosol generated during the clinical procedures ( 23 ).…”

Section: Practice-based Clinical Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dental Education in the Time of COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Recommendations

Hassan

Amer

2021

Front. Med.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Moving within the second wave of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, dental education delivery has been profoundly affected by this crisis, so has the structure, evaluation, and future of dental education. Both pre-clinical and clinical dental education have experienced challenges ranging from fully online educational content to limited dental training for senior dental students. This crisis appears to be a tipping point that produced confusion in dental teaching especially clinical sciences. Although medical institutions immediately started to adapt to the unexpected COVID-19 crisis, dental and oral health educational services are profoundly impaired due to the dental team's propinquity to the patient and the aerosols generated during routine dental therapeutic procedures. Dental students unlike other medical students are considered to be at the highest risk due to the nature of their clinical training that includes working in the oral cavity of patients using aerosol-generating equipment. Some dental schools have taken the leadership and documented their modifications during this pandemic; however, there is a serious need for further investigation and wide range screening of the situation in the dental schools during the COVID-19 crisis. The aim of this mini-review is to present these challenges and how academic dental institutions have implemented strategies to overcome them.

show abstract

Role of Teledentistry in COVID-19 Pandemic: A Nationwide Comparative Analysis among Dental Professionals

Cited by 56 publications

References 32 publications

Impact of COVID-19 on the Knowledge and Attitudes of Dentists toward Teledentistry

Impact of COVID-19 on the Knowledge and Attitudes of Dentists toward Teledentistry

Knowledge and Perceptions of COVID-19 Among Health Care Professionals, Medical Students, and Dental Students in the GCC Region: A Cross-Sectional Correlational Study

Dental Education in the Time of COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Recommendations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About