Knowledge Attitude Practice Of Dental Practitioners Regarding The COVID-19 Pandemic - A Pilot Survey

Background: COVID-19 has been declared as a global public health emergency that is affecting people across the globe. With the increasing severity of COVID 19 pandemic it is essential that the dental health practitioners are prepared. The COVID 19 is a respiratory disease with high transmissibility and the dentist has high risk because the aerosol generated during the dental procedures exposes the dentist to the respiratory and oral section of patients.However since the dental services are stopped for a long time it is important to the dentist to be fully prepared before resuming their services. Aim: The aim of the study was undertaken to assess the knowledge, attitude , perception of dental practitioners regarding COVID 19. Materials and Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted amongst 52 dental practitioners. A pre-validated questionnaire was prepared based on KAP components regarding COVID-19, consisting of 15 questions. It was circulated to participants through an online platform (Google forms). The statistics were done using SPSS Software. Chi square test was used to check the association and the p value of 0.05 was said to be statistically significant. Conclusion: The knowledge, attitude and practice of dental practitioners towards COVID-19 was found to be satisfactory, but in a feedback during the survey, many expressed interest in attending a structured CDE program covering all the minute and intricate details related to infection control and practice during and after this pandemic.