Knowledge, Attitude and Practices on COVID-19 among Patients Attending a Private Dental College in Jeddah

Abstract

Introduction: The close proximity to the patient’s oropharyngeal region and also involved aerosol production presents a potential high risk for the transmission of disease across patients and dental health practitioners. This requires dentists and patients to be aware of the risks of contracting coronavirus from the patient’s perspective when they seek dental treatment. Aim: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of the patients toward the dental visits during the pandemic crisis. Materials and Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study conducted in IBN Sina National College, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 6th July, 2020 to 24th July 2020. All the patients who had visited the dental clinics attached to the dental college were sent online google docs form with a consent through WhatsApp. Questions were divided into 2 sections, one section related to demographic data of participants like age, gender, education level, frequency of dental visits and the other section related to patients’ perspective with regards to the coronavirus infection in the dental set up. The results were analysed using SPSS version 23. Results: The questionnaire was sent to all the patients online and all of them had responded to the survey. Majority of the patients {1757 (80.9%)} have knowledge about the COVID-19 disease signs, symptoms, transmission and complications. Among these respondents 6.6% (144) had routinely visited a dentist, 8.8% (192) had sometimes visited a dentist and only 0.3% (7) visited a dentist only once and they generally try to avoid visiting a dentist. Conclusion: At a clinical level, education is limited only to the patients who approach the dentists. At a community level, government, dental colleges and dentists have to take several measures in educating the public in equipping them with health promotional materials. Community-based online programs should be planned and implemented by different levels of administration.