Covid-19 Knowledge and Perceptions Among Dental Specialists: A Cross-Sectional Online Questionnaire Survey.

BACKGROUND

The recent outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) caused a significant impact on dentistry. It is imperative to have sufficient knowledge of COVID-19 to manage patients in the dental operatory.

AIM

To assess the knowledge and perceptions of dentists from different specialities about COVID-19 disease.

SETTINGS AND DESIGN

Cross-sectional online survey.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study used a descriptive cross-sectional study design with a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire included three sets of 23 questions [Demographic-4; Source of information-1; Knowledge-10 and Perceptions-8]. The comparison of mean scores of knowledge and perceptions were interpreted based on the occupation of dental specialists.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED

The association between demographic variables and dental specialists' knowledge and perception scores was carried out using SPSS (Version IBM 21.0, NY, USA).

RESULTS

A total of 429 dentists from various specialties participated in the present study. The study had obtained a overall good knowledge score (92.7%) with a mean value of 8.86 + 0.22, and a perception score (70.7%) with a mean value of 5.4+0.3. The present study reports a statistically significant difference between age (p=0.03) and knowledge source (p<0.05). The multi variate regression analysis showed that dentists' specialty had no significant effect on knowledge and perception.

CONCLUSION

The study reports sufficient knowledge and perception scores. Oral maxillofacial surgeons showed higher knowledge scores, while prosthodontics and periodontics achieved good mean scores for perception on COVID-19. Social media and health authorities played an equally important role in the overall knowledge of the source of information related to COVID-19.