Assessment of knowledge and practice of dentists towards Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): a cross-sectional survey from L
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Assessment of knowledge and practice of dentists towards Coronavirus Disease (COVID‑19): a cross‑sectional survey from Lebanon Zeina Nasser1, Youssef Fares1, Rama Daoud2 and Linda Abou‑Abbas1*
Abstract Background: Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) epidemic is a public health emergency of international concern. Dentists are exposed to the enormous risk of COVID-19 infection during this epidemic. This study aims to assess the knowledge and practice of dentists toward the COVID-19 epidemic in Lebanon. Methods: We conducted an online survey using the snowball-sampling technique. Information on socio-demo‑ graphic data, knowledge, practice, and additional information required concerning COVID-19 were collected. Results: Our results showed that the majority of the Lebanese dentists had good knowledge (91.3%), and nearly half of the respondents had a good practice (58.7%) regarding COVID-19. The most common information source was the World Health Organization (73.7%). Multiple linear regression showed that specialist dentists who completed training on COVID-19 with a high level of knowledge had better practice. Conclusions: Lebanese dentists revealed good knowledge regarding COVID-19. However, dentists had limited com‑ prehension of the extra precautionary measures that protect the dental staff and patients from this virus. Our findings have important implications for the development of strategies suitable for improving the level of practice among dentists and enhance prevention programs. Keywords: Knowledge, Practice, Dentist, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Lebanon Background Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) outbreak was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 [1]. The novel virus Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) has rapidly spread from Wuhan to most of Hubei province and subsequently to the rest of the countries [2]. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that Coronavirus
*Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Faculty of Medical Sciences, Neuroscience Research Center, Lebanese University, Hadath, Lebanon Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
outbreaks have constituted a global health emergency of international concern [3]. Coronavirus is primarily transmitted during close contact from human to human through respiratory droplets. It is transmitted directly from person to person when a COVID-19 case coughs or exhales producing droplets that reach the nose, mouth, or eyes of another person. Other people become infected with the virus by touching fomites, then touching their face [4]. The risk of cross-infection between dentists and patients constitute major concerns in dental clinics. Treatment procedures which involve the use of rotary dental and surgical instruments such as handpieces or ultrasonic scalers and air–water syringes and others [5]
© The Author(s) 2020. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptat
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