Investigation of Turkish periodontists’ attitudes and behaviors during COVID-19 pandemic: A questionnaire survey

Year 2024, Volume: 8 Issue: 3, 122 - 129, 31.12.2024

Bensu Özen , Hatice Selin Güngörmek , Leyla Kuru

https://doi.org/10.29228/erd.82

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the possible COVID-19 changes in the attitudes and behaviors of Turkish periodontists in clinical practice during the pandemic.
Materials and methods: A 21-question survey form created on Google Form was used as a collection tool. 126 volunteer periodontists, to whom survey link was sent, gave a full response between January and March, 2021. While number and percentage values were calculated for descriptive statistics, chi-square test was used to compare categorical between groups.
Results: This online study included 126 Turkish periodontists. Regarding the frequency of use of protective equipment in clinical procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase of 100 % in the use of FFP/3 and FFP/2 masks, 60.32 % in the use of goggles was observed. The group of periodontists with 20 years or more of professional experience increased the use of goggles compared to both the groups of periodontists with 0-5 years and 5-10 years of experience (p<0.05). The frequency of antibiotic, anti-inflammatory and analgesic prescription did not change during COVID-19 pandemic. However, male periodontists reported prescribing antibiotics more often than female periodontists in the presence of pus outflow and in the treatment of periodontal abscess (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Despite the implementation of enhanced personal protection measures by Turkish periodontologists in response to the ongoing pandemic, there has been a persistence in the frequency of medication prescription, which is guided by scientific knowledge and clinical experience.

Keywords

COVID-19 Pandemic, Periodontists, questionnaire

COVID-19 Pandemisi Döneminde Periodontologların Tutum ve Davranışlarının Değerlendirilmesi: Anket Çalışması

Abstract

Amaç: Periodontologların kendilerini, hastalarını ve yardımcılarını korumada ve böylece enfeksiyonun yayılmasını önlemedeki rolü kritiktir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, Türk periodontologlarının Corona virüs (CoV) pandemisi sürecinde klinik uygulamalardaki tutum ve davranışlarındaki değişiklikleri incelemektir.
Gereç ve Yöntem: Google Forms üzerinde oluşturulan 21 soruluk çevrimiçi anket formu veri toplama amacıyla kullanıldı. Anket linki gönderilen gönüllü periodontologların tamamı Ocak- Mart 2021 tarihleri arasında eksiksiz yanıt verdi. Sayı ve yüzde değerleri hesaplanarak tanımlayıcı istatistikler elde edildi, gruplar arasında kategorik verilerin karşılaştırılması için ki-kare testi uygulandı.
Bulgular: Bu çevrimiçi çalışmaya, Türkiye’de görev yapmakta olan 126 periodontolog dahil edildi. COVID-19 pandemisi döneminde katılımcıların klinik işlemlerde koruyucu ekipman kullanım sıklığı konusunda FFP/3 ve FFP/2 maske kullanımında % 100, gözlük kullanımında % 60.32’lık artış görüldü. 20 yıl ve üzeri mesleki tecrübe süresi sahip periodontolog grubu, hem 0-5 yıl hem de 5-10 yıl arası tecrübe süresine sahip periodontolog gruplarına kıyasla gözlük kullanımını artırdı (p<0.05). Ancak antibiyotik, antienflamatuvar ve analjezik reçete etme sıklığının değişmediği bildirildi. Pü çıkışı varlığı ve periodontal apse tedavisinde erkek periodontologlar, kadın periodontologlara göre daha fazla antibiyotik reçete ettiğini bildirdi (p<0.05).
Sonuç: Türk periodontologlar, COVID-19 pandemisi sırasında sürekli güncellenen tedbirlerle kişisel korunma önlemlerini arttırmış olsa da bilimsel birikim ve klinik tecrübeyle edinilen ilaç reçete etme sıklığı konusunda eski alışkanlıklarına olan bağlılıklarını devam ettirdi.

Keywords

COVID-19 Pandemisi, Periodontolog, Anket

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