JERUSALEM, Palestine: A May 2020 survey asked dentists located in the West Bank area about their preparedness to resume offering routine dental care after the practice closures that were necessitated by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The researchers published a study in February this year which found that the challenges that emerged during the pandemic showed that dentistry needed to adapt in order to be better prepared for future crises.
Researchers from Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, and the University of Iowa in Iowa City in the US surveyed 488 dentists practising in the West Bank area. The participants were asked about their perception of the risks related to COVID-19, their level of preparedness to resume providing elective dental care, how confident they felt treating patients that were suspected of having COVID-19 and about a range of factors related to their level of confidence. The study also examined the participants’ perceptions of their own financial stability and role in the pandemic response.
Close to 60% of respondents said that they felt unprepared to reopen their dental practices. On the topic of treating patients with COVID-19, around 13% of respondents said that they had no confidence, and almost two-thirds (64%) said that they had little to moderate confidence. The authors found that dentists who had received training on infection control—or specific training related to COVID-19—reported higher levels of confidence. Close to 75% of respondents said that the financial hardship that they were facing was so great that they could not meet their financial commitments in the current month.
The authors found that financial and ethical factors were the main reasons for the participants to resume the provision of elective care. Dentists in Palestine had not been called upon to assist in the pandemic response, and more than 18% of respondents said that their offer of assistance had not been accepted. Around 19% said they had wanted to volunteer in the local pandemic response but had been unsure of how they could become involved. The vast majority (89.7%) of respondents felt that their role in the pandemic response had been to provide urgent dental care to patients and to educate others about COVID-19 (82.4%).
The story link: https://www.dental-tribune.com/news/study-shows-dentistry-must-adapt-to-be-prepared-for-future-crises/