Comprehensive Knowledge and Preparedness among Dental Community to Confront COVID-19-A Multicentric Cross-Sectional Study

Vaccine Acceptance, Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Regarding the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-Sectional Study among Dentists in Trinidad and Tobago

Background: This study’s aim was to assess Trinidad and Tobago dentists’ vaccine acceptance, knowledge, attitude and practices regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: All dentists registered with the Trinidad and Tobago Dental Association were invited to complete an online anonymous questionnaire between June and October 2021. Results: A total of 46.2% of dentists responded. The majority of respondents had excellent knowledge of COVID-19 (94.8%), use of personal protective equipment (98.7%) and N95 masks (93.5%), but had poor knowledge about the reuse of N95 masks (27.5%). A total of 34.9% were comfortable providing emergency care to positive or suspected cases of COVID-19, and 64.5% were afraid of becoming infected from a patient. PPE usage was reported at 97.4% and 67.3% for N95 masks. All surfaces of waiting areas were disinfected every 2 h by 59.2%. A total of 90.8% agreed to be vaccinated straight away if a vaccine were made available. Conclusion: Dentists in Trinidad and Tobago have good levels of knowledge, attitude, practices regarding COVID-19. Dentists also have high levels of vaccine acceptance and can play a role in advocating for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Perceptions and attitudes of dental practitioners towards impacts of Covid 19 pandemic on clinical dentistry: a cross-sectional study

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged all healthcare providers including dental practitioners. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the dental practitioners’ perceptions and attitudes towards the impacts of COVID-19 on their professional practice, career decision and patient care.

Methods

Data was collected from dental practitioners registered in New South Wales (NSW), Australia using an online survey.

Results and conclusion

Responses received from 206 dental practitioners revealed their perceptions and attitudes towards COVID-19 infection risk, clinical guidelines, and measures adopted to deliver patient care. Majority of participants perceived the risk of infection in dentistry was higher compared with other health professionals. Most dental practices have followed guidelines received from professional associations and adopted multiple measures such as providing hand sanitizer, social distancing, and risk screen, to ensure safe delivery of oral health care. Over 80% of dental practitioners raised concerns on patients’ accessibility to dental care during the pandemic. Despite tele-dentistry was introduced, almost half of the participants did not recognize tele-dentistry as an effective alternative. Moreover, negative impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on dental practitioner’s professional career have been reported, including lower practice safety, reduction in working hours and income. Noteworthy, one quarter of participants even considered changing their practice environment, moving sectors or even leaving their career in dentistry. However, majority of the dental practitioners are willing to stay in their current practice environment and continue their career in dentistry. Our observations demonstrate the systematic disruption to dental practice faced in Australia due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Providing dental practitioners with timely educational training and support is important to minimise negative impacts of the challenges and to optimise dental care.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12903-022-02457-y.