The COVID-19 pandemic and its global effects on dental practice. An International survey
Guglielmo Campus, Marcela Diaz Betancourt, Cagetti Mg, RA Giacaman, David J. Manton, GVA Douglas, Thiago Saads Carvalho, JC Carvalho, Ana Vuković, FJ Cortés-Martinicorena, Denis Bourgeois, Vita Mačhiulskienė, Ruxandra Sava-Roşianu, Jogikalmat Krithikadatta, Н.С. Морозова, Acevedo Am, AA. Agudelo-Suárez, Guadalupe Inés Aguirre, Karla María Nava Aguirre, Iris Cabrera Alfonso, H. Abd El -Ghaffar, RA El Fadl, SA Al Maghlouth, Teresa Almerich-Torres, Francesca Amadori, K Antia, Elmedin Bajrić, DM Barbosa-Liz, S Ben-Tanfous, Heather L. Bieber, Sneha Bhusari, Sarah Birch, Giuliana Bontà, Peter Bottenberg, J M Bruers, Lorena Bustillos, Peter Bührens, Jing Cai, JL Cairoli, FCA Carrer, MB Correa, Berta Cortes-Acha, Florence Carrouel, R de Carvalho Oliveira, Fabio Cocco, Felicity Crombie, Julia Csikar, Dominique Declerck, Marijan Denkovski, James Deschner, J Dopico-San Martin, O Viktorovna Dudnik, WY Escobar, Abdelrahman Elwishahy, CE Fernàndez, Margherita Fontana, A Frattaroli Pericchi, M Ghorbe, E. Gigineishvili, Alejandra García-Quintana, Jane Gray, Neeraj Gugnani, Karla Gambetta‐Tessini, Agha Haider, MS Hopcraft, Joachim Hüttmann, Neada Hysenaj, Arif Hanafi Bin Jalal, M Jikia, Juliana John, Gudrun Kaps-Richter, Tamara Kerber Tedesco, Soraya León, KA Levin, H Pau Lew, Marcelo Machado, Anne MacLennan, Jerome Mafeni, Mariana Minatel Braga, A Malerba, Stefan Mandić‐Rajčević, A Askerovich Mamedo, Shani Ann Mani, O Marouane, Dejan Marković, E Paredes Martinez, N Maroufidis, F Medeiros Mendes, Carlos F. Méndez, Sabri Musa, A Necibi, Nor Azlida Mohd Nor, B Tochukwu Ojukwu, Niek Opdam, Livia Ottolenghi, Jenny Owen, Ana Laura Pássaro, IF Persoon, Tamara Perić, E Pesaressi-Torres
Abstract
A multicentre survey was designed to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on dental practice worldwide, estimate the COVID-19 related symptoms/signs, work attitudes and behaviour and the routine use of protective measures and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). A global survey using a standardized questionnaire with research groups from 36 countries was designed. The questionnaire was developed and pretested during April 2020 and contained three domains: 1) Personal data; 2) COVID-19 positive rate and symptoms/signs presumably related to the coronavirus; 3) Working conditions and PPE adopted after the outbreak. Countries’ data were grouped by the Country Positive Rate (CPR) during the survey period and by Gross-National-Income per capita. An ordinal multinomial logistic regression model was carried out with COVID-19 self-reported rate referred by dental professionals as dependent variable to assess the association with questionnaire items. A total of 52,491 questionnaires were returned with a male/female ratio of 0.63. Out of the total respondents, 7,859 dental professionals (15%) reported symptoms/signs compatible with COVID-19. More than half of the sample (n = 27,818; 53%) stated to use FFP2/N95 masks, while 21,558 (41.07%) used eye protection. In the bivariate analysis, CPR and N95/FFP2 were significantly associated (OR = 1.80 95%CI = 1.60/2.82 and OR = 5.20 95%CI = 1.44/18.80, respectively), while Gross-National-Income was not statistically associated with CPR (OR = 1.09 95%CI = 0.97/1.60). The same significant associations were observed in the multivariate analysis. Oral health service provision has not been significantly affected by COVID-19, although access to routine dental care was reduced due to country-specific temporary lockdown periods. While the dental profession has been identified at high-risk, the reported rates of COVID-19 for dental professionals were not significantly different to those reported for the general population in each country. These findings may help to better plan oral health care for future pandemic events.