Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) has had drastic effects among healthcare professionals.
Objectives: This study aimed to assess knowledge and awareness among dental specialists, general dentists and dental assistants regarding standard patient care guidelines for minimizing the spread of the infection.
Material and methods: A survey-based cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 84 participants. The participants were divided into groups of dental specialists, general dentists and dental assistants. A modified version of a validated questionnaire was used to evaluate knowledge and awareness regarding SARS‑CoV‑2 as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. Data was analyzed using the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post-hoc Tukey's tests to assess differences in knowledge regarding the SARS‑CoV‑2 guidelines across the 3 groups. The simple linear regression analysis was used to examine factors influencing the knowledge scores.
Results: Among all dental specialists, 13 orthodontists, 9 operative dentists, 8 maxillofacial surgeons, 4 prosthodontists, and 1 periodontist responded to the survey. The mean knowledge scores of dental specialists, general dentists and dental assistants were 10.05 ±2.10, 9.95 ±2.30 and 8.53 ±2.10, respectively. Overall, we found a significant difference (p = 0.02) in the knowledge scores between the groups, and pairwise comparisons showed that there was a significant difference (p = 0.03) in the knowledge scores between dental specialists and dental assistants.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that hospitals should conduct mandatory workshops, training sessions and seminars to raise the awareness of the novel coronavirus pandemic and disinfection protocols, not only for specialists, but for all staff members.
Keywords: attitudes; cross-infection; health knowledge; practice.