The coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has put enormous pressure on health care systems around the world. Dentistry has had to adjust to the new epidemic situation to not only bring relief to suffering patients but also to avoid becoming a source of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Methods: A comprehensive, cross-sectional survey was conducted between April 6 and 16, 2020 among 875 Polish dental practitioners. The aim of the research was to assess dentists’ attitudes and professional approaches resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: 71.2% of dentists who responded to the questionnaire decided to suspend their clinical practice during that particular time. The main factors for this fact were the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), the respondents’ subjective perceptions of the risk of COVID-19 contraction and a general feeling of anxiety and uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 situation. The authors observed a significant decrease in the number of patients admitted weekly in April 2020 (12.06; SD, 11.55) in comparison to that in the time before the state of pandemic was declared on March 11, 2020 (49.21; SD, 24.97). Conclusions: Due to the unpreparedness of the dental sector, both in national health and private settings, most of the Polish dentists decided to voluntarily suspend their clinical practice in order to mitigate the spread of the disease. The COVID-19 outbreak has revealed numerous shortcomings in the dental care system, especially regarding the insufficient coordination of health services related to the pandemic and lack of advanced PPE. This has led to an overwhelming feeling of fear, confusion and anxiety among dental professionals in Poland and a sudden decrease in the number of performed dental procedures. Hopefully enriched with the recent experience and due to the implementation of proper strategic and long-term measures, dental practitioners will be better prepared and adapted to global health care disruptions in the future.

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The Attitudes and Professional Approaches of Dental Practitioners during the COVID-19 Outbreak in Poland: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

“Duirt bean liom go nduirt bean lei—a woman told me that a woman told her”—Irish proverb.

The general public has been overwhelmed with information related to the novel coronavirus.1 In Ireland the medical community has noted a trend of messages containing incorrect information about covid-19 spreading rapidly through social media and messaging apps. Misinformation is defined as false information that is communicated without deliberate malice; disinformation is false information that is communicated with the intent to deceive.2 The …

https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/369/bmj.m1587.full.pdf

Going viral: doctors must tackle fake news in the covid-19 pandemic.

A nationwide survey of dentists was carried out in Brazil, a new pandemic epicenter, to analyze how dental care coverage has been affected in public versus private networks, changes in routine and burdens, and how local prevalence of COVID-19 affects dental professionals. Dentists were recruited via email and Instagram®. Responses to a pre-tested questionnaire were collected May 15-24, 2020. COVID-19 case/death counts in the state where respondents work was used to test associations between contextual status and decreases in weekly appointments, fear of contracting COVID-19 at work, and current work status (α = 0.05). Over 10 days, 3,122 responses were received (response rate ~2.1%) from all Brazilian states. Work status was affected for 94%, with less developed regions being more impacted. The pandemic impact on clinical routine was high/very high for 84%, leading to varied changes to clinic infrastructure, personal protective equipment use, and patient screening, as well as increased costs. COVID-19 patients had been seen by 5.3% of respondents; 90% reported fearing contracting COVID-19 at work. Multilevel models showed that greater case and death rates (counted as 1000 cases and 100 deaths per million inhabitants) in one's state increased the odds of being fearful of contracting the disease (18% and 25%). For each additional 1000 cases/100 deaths, the odds of currently not working or treating only emergencies increased by 36% and 58%. The reduction in patients seen weekly was significantly greater in public (38.7±18.6) than in private clinics (22.5±17.8). This study provides early evidence of three major impacts of the pandemic on dentistry: increasing inequalities due to coverage differences between public and private networks; the adoption of new clinical routines, which are associated with an economic burden for dentists; and associations of regional COVID-19 incidence/mortality with fear of contracting the disease at work.

/pdf/covid-19-challenges-to-dentistry-in-the-new-pandemic-3huegjbol8.pdf

COVID-19 challenges to dentistry in the new pandemic epicenter: Brazil.

A nationwide survey of dentists was carried out in Brazil, a new pandemic epicenter, to analyze how dental coverage has been affected (public versus private networks), changes in routine and burdens, and how the local prevalence of COVID-19 affects dental professionals. Dentists were recruited via email and an Instagram® campaign. Responses to an online questionnaire were collected May 15–24, 2020. COVID-19 case/death counts in the state where respondents work was used to test associations between contextual status and decreases in weekly appointments, fear of contracting COVID-19 at work, and current work status (α=0.05). Over 10 days, 3,122 responses were received, with region, gender, and age distributions similar to those of dentists in Brazil. Work status was affected for 94% of dentists, with less developed regions being more impacted. The impact on routine was high or very high for 84%, leading to varied changes to clinic infrastructure, personal protective equipment use, patient screening, and increased costs. COVID-19 patients had been seen by 5.3% of respondents, and 90% reported fearing contracting COVID-19 at work. Multilevel statistics showed that greater case and death rates (1000 cases or 100 deaths/million inhabitants) in one’s state increased the odds of being fearful of contracting the disease (by 18% and 25%). For each additional 1000 cases or 100 deaths, the odds of currently not working or treating emergencies increased by 36% and 58%. The reduction in patients seen weekly per dentist was greater in public (38.7±18.6) than in private clinics (22.5±17.8). This study provides early evidence of three major impacts of the pandemic on dentistry in Brazil: increasing inequalities due to coverage differences between public and private networks; adoption of new clinical routines, which are associated with an economic burden; and associations of regional COVID-19 incidence and mortality with fear of contracting the disease at work.

/pdf/covid-19-challenges-to-dentistry-in-the-new-pandemic-410tmzrj3k.pdf

COVID-19 challenges to dentistry in the new pandemic epicenter: Brazil

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected lives and professions worldwide. We aimed to determine the behavior of dentists during the lockdown in Central Italy through an online survey. We demonstrated that the most frequent of urgencies, not otherwise manageable through telemedicine, was dental pulp inflammation. Although a statistically significant increase in the use of some of the personal protective equipment (PPE) from pre to during lockdown was shown, dentists were afraid of being infected during the dental procedures. Moreover, we showed that digital dentistry, telemedicine, use of the rubber dam, distancing of the appointments and further structural changes at the dental office are necessary to reduce the contagion among dentists and patients. No significant differences were shown between gender.

The Impact of COVID-19 Related Lockdown on Dental Practice in Central Italy-Outcomes of A Survey.

This survey assessed the symptoms/signs, protective measures, awareness, and perception levels regarding COVID-19 among dentists in Lombardy, Italy. Moreover, an analysis of the answers gathered in areas with different prevalence of the disease was carried out. All Lombardy's dentists were sent an online ad hoc questionnaire. The questionnaire was divided into four domains: personal data, precautionary measures (before patient arrival; in the waiting room; in the operating room), awareness, and perception. Three thousand five hundred ninety-nine questionnaires were analyzed. Five hundred two (14.43%) participants had suffered one or more symptoms referable to COVID-19. Thirty-one subjects were positive to the virus SARS-CoV-2 and 16 subjects developed the disease. Only a small number of dentists (n = 72, 2.00%) were confident of avoiding infection; dentists working in low COVID-19 prevalence areas were more confident than those working in the Milan area and high prevalence area (61.24%, 61.23%, and 64.29%, p < 0.01 respectively). The level of awareness was statistically significantly higher (p < 0.01) in the Milan area (71.82%) than in the other areas. This survey demonstrated that dentists in the COVID-19 highest prevalence area, albeit reported to have more symptoms/signs than the rest of the sample, were the ones who adopted several precautionary measures less frequently and were the more confident of avoiding infection.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/11/3835/pdf

Jean Louis Cairoli

Papers

COVID-19 Outbreak in North Italy: An Overview on Dentistry. A Questionnaire Survey.