Abstract
Healthcare staff, especially dentists, are subject to a higher risk of COVID-19 infection due to close contact with infected patients. This study aimed to determine the stress amidst dentists of being infected while working during the current outbreak of new coronavirus diseases and the impact of treatment protocol change along with the financial concerns and measures taken to deal with the same. A questionnaire-based survey was carried out among 180 dental practitioners. Information was entered into Microsoft Excel 2007 and examined in SPSS 18.0. All the categorical factors were communicated in terms of numbers and rates. Affiliations between categorical factors were decided to utilise Chi-square. The prevalence was measurably noteworthy when the value was less than 0.05. Most participants were in clinical practice and attached to the academic institution (78.3%), and most were in the 20-30 age group. More participants had a bachelor’s degree and were within 1-5 years of age (68.3%). During dental practice, the chances of transmission of COVID-19 (98.9%) are believed to be from a patient or co-worker. This reveals that COVID has added to dentists’ mental health. This stress could affect the personal or patient relationship, affecting the treatment outcome with a significant difference between perceived stress between males and females. Even concern about personal health and the health of family members during a pandemic is taking a toll. Further, managing the rising cost of infection control procedures was challenging.
Keywords: COVID 19, Dental practice and Mental health, Occupational stress, Pandemic.