Prepared or Scared? Awareness of dental practitioners about n COVID-19: awareness of dental practitioners about nCOVID 19

Abstract

Background: nCOVID 19 outbreak has taken the world by storm. Dental practitioners being one of the high risk professionals should be aware about corona and accordingly adopt better clinical practices. Objectives: To evaluate knowledge, attitude and practices of dental practitioners about nCOVID-19 in their clinical set ups. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among dental practitioners of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula (tricity), India. Ethical clearance was obtained from ethical board of Riyat and Bahra Dental College and Hospital. Consent was taken from study participants. Demographic data recorded gender, qualification, type of practice, years into practice and common information source of n-COVID. A 23 itemed self administered questionnaire was prepared on Google form and sent to registered mobile number (whats app). Results: A total of 281 responses were obtained. Descriptive statistics was done. P value <- 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Mean knowledge, attitude and practice scores were 7.85, 5.61 and 5.12 respectively. Mann Whitney and Wilcoxan test showed significant association between mean knowledge scores and qualification (P=0.020)(BDS, MDS) and between mean knowledge scores and years into practice (Kruskal Wallis) (p=0.007). Spearman correlation coefficient showed no significant association between mean knowledge, attitude and practices scores. Conclusion: Dental practitioners demonstrated average knowledge about nCOVID-19 and application of this knowledge in clinical set up. However they had positive attitude and showed positive practices in their clinical set ups. They should be further trained and prepared to handle such emergency COVID scenario in their clinical set up.