A Cross Sectional Questionnaire based Study to Determine the Correlation between Knowledge and Fabrication Prospects of Maxillofacial Prosthesis in Post-COVID Mucormycosis Patients

Abstract

Purpose - The aim of the study is to assess the knowledge among prosthodontists related to the course of fabrication of maxillofacial prosthesis in Post-COVID mucormycosis patients. Method – It is a cross sectional, questionnaire study which was performed among the prosthodontists and the postgraduate students all over India. The questionnaire was based on the clinician’s preference in terms of impression materials, prosthetic materials and methods of shade matching. Initially, the questionnaire was tested for validation among 20 sample size and was judged by an expert and lay panel. The Content Validity Ratio was 0.7 which elicited that the questions were acceptable and agreeable. It was further tested on a sample of 200 respondents for proper analysis and desired level of accuracy. The CHI-square test was performed using 20 variables between three groups based on the years of experience – Group A (< 5 years), Group B (5-10 years) & Group C (> 10 years). Result – The result showed that Group B exhibited the highest value in terms of the number of cases treated by the clinicians, method of fabrication and shade selection. A significant difference of p= = 0.02 was observed when comparing the three groups. Conclusion – Within the limitations of this cross sectional study, it was concluded that in the rehabilitation of PostCovid mucormycosis patients, a combined effort of theoritical knowledge of maxillofacial prosthesis along with clinical experience, communication and awareness about the recent advances and technologies is required.