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. 2021 Jan 26:14:161-169.
doi: 10.2147/JMDH.S285093. eCollection 2021.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on Pediatric Dentistry in Austria: Knowledge, Perception and Attitude Among Pediatric Dentists in a Cross-Sectional Survey

Katrin Bekes  1 , Valentin Ritschl  2 , Tanja Stamm  2
Affiliations

COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on Pediatric Dentistry in Austria: Knowledge, Perception and Attitude Among Pediatric Dentists in a Cross-Sectional Survey

Katrin Bekes et al. J Multidiscip Healthc. .

Abstract

Introduction: The Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) outbreak is affecting people worldwide. Given the frequent production of aerosols, dentists are a high-risk group for infection. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, perception and attitude regarding COVID-19 among pediatric dentists in Austria.

Methods: An online survey was distributed among the 128 pediatric dentists that are members of the Austrian Society of Pediatric Dentistry. The questionnaire was divided into three sections: 1) dentists' demographic characteristics, 2) general knowledge and attitude, 3) COVID-19 with a focus on pediatric dentistry.

Results: Seventy-five dentists replied; 58 questionnaires could be included in the analysis (93.1% female). Pediatric dentists were found to have good general knowledge of COVID-19. However, only 10% had attended training or lectures and 36.2% rated their role in teaching patients about COVID-19 as being very significant. At the beginning of the outbreak, 78.6% only offered emergency services. Currently, only 10.3% of the dentists work without FFP2/3 mask when producing aerosols.

Discussion: Austrian pediatric dentists were aware of the general aspects of COVID-19. Those, who had their practice open mostly followed national and international recommendations given and only offered emergency visits.

Keywords: COVID-19; infection; infection control; pandemic; pediatric dentist.

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Conflict of interest statement

Prof. Dr Tanja Stamm reports personal fees from Sanofi, AbbVie, and Roche, outside the submitted work. The authors declare that they have no other conflicts of interest in this work.

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