Indian Journal of Dental Sciences (Jan 2020)

Emergency preparedness of oral health professionals during COVID-19 pandemic: A knowledge, attitude, and practices study

  • Pankaj Bansal,
  • Archna Agnihotri,
  • Ashish Gupta,
  • Geetanjali Singh,
  • Antervir Kaur,
  • Rosy Arora,
  • Shilpa Singh

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/IJDS.IJDS_88_20
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 3
pp. 137 – 144

Abstract

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Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus and was first reported in Wuhan, China. Affecting almost 207 countries, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020.[1] Considering social distancing as first-line measure of reducing the transmission of disease, nationwide lockdown in India was announced. Health-care professionals and first responders are considered to be high-risk groups for the transmission of the virus. As oral health professionals form, a significant risk group for infection and need to take all transmission-based precautions to prevent the transmission of the disease. Keeping that in view, various advisories were also issued to provide interim guidance to the dental practitioners during this pandemic. This study was designed to have an insight into problems and deficiencies faced by the dental fraternity in the practical application of their knowledge in today's changing scenario. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices of dentists across North India during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: Dental practitioners across North India were requested to take part in the online survey. Survey forms were sent in the form of Google document. Four hundred and ten survey questionnaires were sent to dental practitioners in the northern Indian region. Three hundred and thirty responses were received with response rate equivalent to 80.4%. Statistics were applied to analyze the responses. Conclusion: Dentists across North India are well informed and aware of the changing scenarios during COVID-19 Pandemic. They seemed to be optimistic and trying to keep themselves abreast of the latest guidelines and providing emergency dental care in the best possible way with an intent to serve their community.

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