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Meta-Analysis
. 2022 Jan 15;58(1):130.
doi: 10.3390/medicina58010130.

Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Teledentistry among Dental Practitioners during COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Galvin Sim Siang Lin  1 , Sze Hui Koh  2 , Karyn Zuhuan Ter  3 , Chia Wei Lim  4 , Sharmin Sultana  5 , Wen Wu Tan  6
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Teledentistry among Dental Practitioners during COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Galvin Sim Siang Lin et al. Medicina (Kaunas). .

Abstract

Background and Objectives: This systemic review aims to appraise and analyse the awareness, knowledge, attitude, and practice of teledentistry among dental practitioners during COVID-19. Materials and Methods: This review was registered in the PROSPERO database (CRD42021283404). Cross-sectional articles on dental practitioners' perceptions towards teledentistry published between March 2020 and September 2021 were searched in ten online databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Cochrane, EMBASE, SIGLE, EBSCO, LILACS, and Open Grey). The Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tool was employed to analyse the risk of bias (RoB) of each article, whereas the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine recommendation tool was used to evaluate the level of evidence. Data were analysed using the DerSimonian-Laird random effect model based on a single-arm approach. Results: Six studies were included and demonstrated Level 3 evidence. A single-arm meta-analysis revealed that dental practitioners had a high level of awareness (70.4%) and attitude (72.5%) towards teledentistry during the COVID-19 pandemic, but their knowledge level (57.9%) was moderate with a poor practice level (35.8%). A substantial heterogeneity was observed with the overall I2 ranging from 90.78% to 98.21%. Furthermore, meta-regression indicated that the sample size of each study had a significant (p < 0.05) impact on the degree of data heterogeneity. Conclusions: Despite their high degree of awareness and attitude, dental practitioners demonstrated moderate knowledge and relatively poor practice of teledentistry during the COVID-19 pandemic. More well-designed studies are warranted to investigate the alternatives for enhancing dental practitioners' knowledge and practice of teledentistry interventions.

Keywords: coronavirus; dental care; oral health; pandemic; telehealth.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study selection according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) flowchart.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Single-arm meta-analysis showing the awareness, knowledge, attitude, and practice level of teledentistry among dental practitioners.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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