Abstract
Dental clinics were suspected to be a hotspot for nosocomial transmission of COVID-19 due to the easy spread of the virus. The study investigated the preventive behaviors applied in dentistry settings and the level of fear of COVID-19 infection among dentists. A total of 83 respondents (34.94% male and 63.86% female) were included in the research. Sociodemographic data were collected, together with new institutional and personal rules regarding preventive behaviors. Fear of COVID-19 Scale was used to measure the fear of infection. Data was analyzed using SPSS (v.25, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). During the first seven months of confinement, 3.9% of dentists were confirmed with COVID-19 and one fourth treated confirmed positive patients. A quarter of the doctors declared that they had periods when they lived away from home being afraid of transmitting the disease to their family members, and significant data were found in doctors being parents. The closure of dental offices had a negative impact on the financial situation of dentists, especially on those working in rural area offices. Many doctors encountered difficulties in purchasing protective suits and medical supplies, and more than half of the respondents (65.1%, N = 54) focused on the quality of protective suits when purchasing them. More than half of the dentists were trained how to use them. The score for fear of COVID 19 was similar to dentists from other countries. Respondents with chronic diseases were more prone to show higher level of anxiety when following the news and stories related to COVID-19 on TV, media, or social networks. One third of dentists mentioned that they had treated exclusively specific urgent dental problems since the onset of the pandemic and more than 13.3% declared that they refused to provide medical assistance to some specific pathologies because of the fear of infection. The results reflect new challenges and rules adopted by dentists in order to diminish the risk of infection and the impact of pandemic considering their psychological, familial, and financial context. Policymakers and professional associations around may benefit from these findings while formulating guidelines to support dentists during COVID-19 or any future pandemics.
Highlights
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the COVID-19 situation can be qualified as a global pandemic because of its fast spread worldwide, with 100 countries affected at that time [1]
Negative correlations were identified between total score and some demographic variables, and we identified that the more children the dentists had (r = −0.301 *, p = 0.007), the less intense was the fear of COVID-19
The survey was designed in the Romanian language and comprised questions pertaining to socio-demographic characteristics, dentists’ attitudes and perceptions toward COVID-19, opinions about infection, and preventive measures applied in dentistry settings to control the spread of the virus
Summary
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the COVID-19 situation can be qualified as a global pandemic because of its fast spread worldwide, with 100 countries affected at that time [1]. Taking into consideration the increasing number of returning citizens, especially from European countries considered “red zones” and the general situation in Europe, a total lockdown was imposed on 21 March 2020. Starting with this date, dental offices had to close due to the high risk of infection and only public emergency offices continued to be open with but providing a limited number of procedures. Some private dental offices could sustain emergency services only if they met the rules for preventing infection legally regulated by law. The following pathologies were considered emergencies: post-extractional hemorrhage; pain due to acute pulpitis; pain due to acute apical periodontitis; pericoronitis of the impacted teeth; post-extractional alveolitis; cellulitis/abscesses; mandibular fractures; temporomandibular joint dislocation; dento-alveolar traumas (dislocations, avulsions, dental fractures with the impairment of the pulp chamber); and ulceronecrotic gingivostomatitis
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