Gambarini Gianluca, Galli Massimo, Gambarini Elisa, Di Nardo Dario, Seracchiani Marco, Obino Federico Valenti, Patil Shankargouda, Bhandi Shilpa, Miccoli Gabriele, Testarelli Luca
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy, Phone: +39 3393935527, e-mail:
J Contemp Dent Pract. 2020 Jun 1;21(6):599-603.
The aim of the present study was to take a survey on Italian practitioners concerning the perceived risks of aerosol contamination in COVID-19 times and their attitude toward modifications of treatment protocols to reduce this risk.
Power analysis calculated a minimum sample size of 150 participants at 99% confidence level with a 5% margin of error. To homogenize responses elicited by different preventive measures by various national governments, only Italian dentists were included in the survey: overall 500 responses were collected.
Of the 500 analyzed respondents, there were 266 females and 234 males; 379 practitioners were allocated in the more experienced groups, and the remaining 121 in the less experienced group based on less or more than 5 years of practice. The 70% of the dentists consider the dental practice more dangerous for the diffusion of COVID-19 than other social activities. The 5% consider dental practice more dangerous only for the patients. Aerosol contamination was perceived as a risk from the most dentist (70%), but there was agreement on the most dangerous way of cross infection in dental settings. Most of the dentists (55%) believed implementations in their protocols were needed to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infections. No significant differences were found within the groups: both women and men, as well as practitioners with different experience levels (younger or older than 35 years) perceived very similarly the problems related to COVID-19 in dentistry ( > 0.05).
The survey demonstrated that COVID-19 had a great impact on dental practitioners; it increased not only fear of aerosol contamination during dental treatments but also influenced the fear of close contacts.
Airborne and waterborne infections are related with dental treatments and considered the preferred ways of diffusion for COVID-19. The risk of aerosol-related infections could interfere with the clinical practice of the dentist, during the COVID-19 pandemic; the limitations that provided changes to everyday behavior could affect the perception of the safety of the operators, staff, and patient and this could also affect economically the dental office.
本研究旨在对意大利从业者进行一项调查，了解他们对新冠疫情期间气溶胶污染的感知风险，以及他们对修改治疗方案以降低这种风险的态度。
功效分析计算出在99%置信水平、误差幅度为5%的情况下，最小样本量为150名参与者。为使各国政府不同预防措施引发的回答趋于一致，调查仅纳入了意大利牙医：共收集到500份回复。
在500名被分析的受访者中，有266名女性和234名男性；根据执业年限是否超过5年，379名从业者被归入经验更丰富的组，其余121名被归入经验较少的组。70%的牙医认为牙科诊疗对新冠病毒传播比其他社会活动更危险。5%的人认为牙科诊疗仅对患者更危险。大多数牙医（70%）认为气溶胶污染是一种风险，但对于牙科环境中最危险的交叉感染方式存在共识。大多数牙医（55%）认为需要在他们的诊疗方案中采取措施以降低新冠病毒感染风险。各组之间未发现显著差异：女性和男性，以及不同经验水平（35岁以下或以上）的从业者对牙科中与新冠病毒相关问题的认知非常相似（>0.05）。
调查表明，新冠疫情对牙科从业者产生了重大影响；它不仅增加了牙科治疗期间对气溶胶污染的恐惧，还影响了对密切接触的恐惧。
空气传播和水传播感染与牙科治疗有关，并被认为是新冠病毒传播的主要途径。在新冠疫情期间，气溶胶相关感染的风险可能会干扰牙医的临床实践；日常行为的改变所带来的限制可能会影响操作人员、工作人员和患者对安全的认知，这也可能对牙科诊所产生经济影响。
