Covid-19 Knowledge and Perceptions Among Dental Specialists: A Cross-Sectional Online Questionnaire Survey

BACKGROUND: The recent outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) caused a significant impact on dentistry. It is imperative to have sufficient knowledge of COVID-19 to manage patients in the dental operatory. AIM: To assess the knowledge and perceptions of dentists from different specialities about COVID-19 disease. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Cross-sectional online survey. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study used a descriptive cross-sectional study design with a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire included three sets of 23 questions [Demographic-4; Source of information-1; Knowledge-10 and Perceptions-8]. The comparison of mean scores of knowledge and perceptions were interpreted based on the occupation of dental specialists. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: The association between demographic variables and dental specialists’ knowledge and perception scores was carried out using SPSS (Version IBM 21.0, NY, USA). RESULTS: A total of 429 dentists from various specialties participated in the present study. The study had obtained a overall good knowledge score (92.7%) with a mean value of 8.86 + 0.22, and a perception score (70.7%) with a mean value of 5.4+0.3. The present study reports a statistically significant difference between age (p=0.03) and knowledge source (p<0.05). The multi variate regression analysis showed that dentists’ specialty had no significant effect on knowledge and perception. CONCLUSION: The study reports sufficient knowledge and perception scores. Oral maxillofacial surgeons showed higher knowledge scores, while prosthodontics and periodontics achieved good mean scores for perception on COVID-19. Social media and health authorities played an equally important role in the overall knowledge of the source of information related to COVID-19.