A multi-country survey on the impact of COVID-19 on dental practice and dentists' feelings in Latin America

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly influenced the routine of healthcare workers. This study investigated the impact of the pandemic on dental practice and dentists' feelings in Latin America.

Methods: A survey was conducted with dentists from 11 Spanish-speaking Latin American countries in September-December 2020. Professionals were invited by email and via an open campaign promoted on social media. The questions investigated dental care routines, practice changes, and feelings about the pandemic. Descriptive statistics were used to identify frequencies and distributions of variables. Proportions were compared using chi-square tests.

Results: A total of 2127 responses were collected from a sample with diverse demographic, sex, work, and education characteristics. The impact of COVID-19 was considered high/very high by 60% of respondents. The volume of patients assisted weekly was lower compared with the pre-pandemic period (mean reduction = 14 ± 15 patients). A high rate of fear to contracting the COVID-19 at work was observed (85%); 4.9% of participants had a positive COVID-19 test. The main professional challenges faced by respondents were reduction in the number of patients or financial gain (35%), fear of contracting COVID-19 (34%), and burden with or difficulty in purchasing new personal protective equipment (22%). The fear to contracting COVID-19 was influenced by the number of weekly appointments. A positive test by the dentists was associated with their reports of having assisted COVID-19 patients. The most cited feelings about the pandemic were uncertainty, fear, worry, anxiety, and stress. Negative feelings were more prevalent for professionals who did not receive training for COVID-19 preventive measures and those reporting higher levels of fear to contract the disease.

Conclusion: This multi-country survey indicated a high impact of the pandemic on dental care routines in Latin America. A massive prevalence of bad feelings was associated with the pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19 testing; Dental care; Fear; Personal protective equipment; Professional practice.

Fig. 1

Graphs showing associations between the number of weekly patient appointments and A) how prepared the dentists reported themselves to be to assist patients with COVID-19; B) fear of contracting the disease at work; C) providing dental care assistance to COVID-19 patients; and D) positive COVID-19 testing by the dentists

Fig. 2

Graphs showing associations of positive COVID-19 testing by the dentists and A) how prepared they reported themselves to be to assist patients with COVID-19; B) report of having assisted COVID-19 patients. A positive association was observed in B

Fig. 3

Main professional challenges faced during the pandemic reported by the respondents according to categories of years in practice (experience). Burden with the use of new PPE or difficulty in purchasing PPE was more often reported by professionals with 30 or more years in practice. Reconciling work with household chores was more common for professionals with an intermediate number of years of experience

Fig. 4

Word cloud showing the 50 most frequently mentioned words that the respondents associated with how they felt during the COVID-19 pandemic (wordart.com). The larger the font size, the more often the word was mentioned. Red, gray, and green fonts indicate negative, neutral, and positive feelings, respectively. Top 5 words cited were uncertainty (17.0%), afraid (13.1%), worried (6.8%), anxiety (6.0%), and stress (4.6%)