Evaluation of Dentists' Awareness of The COVID-19 Pandemic, Attitudes, and Behaviors Regarding Infection Control, and Anxiety Levels by Specialty and Gender

Aim: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, poses a major threat to healthcare professionals. This study aims to evaluate knowledge levels about the Covid-19 pandemic, attitudes towards infection control in dental clinics and behavior, and levels of anxiety about Covid-19 in terms of dentists and to reveal the differences between gender and specialties. Material and Methods : A total of 450 dentists were included in the study. Socio-demographic data, awareness of the Covid-19 pandemic, attitudes and behaviors regarding infection control in dental clinics, and anxiety levels about Covid-19 of dentists were recorded using an online questionnaire. All statistical analyzes were conducted with IBM SPSS 25.0 program. Results: It was observed that female dentists were more afraid when they heard about death rates related to COVID-19. The questioning of patients with respiratory problems such as cough and difficulty breathing and questioning whether patients have attended any recent meeting or rendezvous were observed more frequently in female dentists. (p<0.001). It was determined that those who postpone treating the patient in suspected cases are mostly non-specialist dentists. It is observed that specialist dentists are more aware of issues such as using anti-microbial mouthwash usage, applying rubber dam isolation, using (surgical) suction with high suction power to patients before dental procedures. (p<0.001). Discussion and Conclusions: Since dentists are in an occupational group with a high risk of exposure to infectious diseases, they must consider every patient as an infected individual and be very careful about taking standard precautions against infectious diseases.