The Awareness, Anxiety and Depression Levels Of\rdentists and Dentistry Patients Regarding the Covid-19\rpandemic

Abstract

Purpose: The new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which started in the late 2019 has had signiőcant effects on all areas,\respecially in the health sector. The purpose of this study was to investigate the awareness, anxiety and depression levels of dentists\rand dental patients regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.\rMaterials & Methods: This was an online survey study including 679 individuals at the ages of 12-60 consisting of dentists and\rdentistry patients (female, n=395; male, n=284). The participants were reached using social media tools such as WhatsApp,\rTwitter, Facebook and Instagram. The survey was consisted of 3 parts. The őrst part included a set of questions on\rsociodemographic characteristics, knowledge level of the COVID-19 pandemic, attitudes and perceptions regarding infection\rcontrol, and sterilization at dental clinics. The second and third parts consisted of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) and\rDepression Severity (PHQ-9) questionnaires examining psychological status in the pandemic period. The level of signiőcance was\raccepted as α=0.05.\rResults: While the rate of experiencing occupational future anxiety in the dentists was signiőcantly higher than that in the\rpatients, the rate of making plans for the future in the patient group was signiőcantly higher in comparison to the dentists\r(p<0.05). The rates of thinking that the risk of disease during dental procedures is high were signiőcantly different between the\rdentist and patient groups (p<0.05). There was also a signiőcant difference between the groups in terms of their GAD-7 scores,\rwhere the scores of the dentists were found to be lower than those of the patients (p<0.05). There was no signiőcant difference\rbetween the PHQ-9 scores of the groups (p>0.05).\rConclusion: Both the dentists and patients thought they had sufőcient information on the disease and its ways of transmission\rand took most of the necessary precautions. Almost all participants had a consensus on the idea that the risk of infection is high\rduring dental procedures. Both the patient and dentist groups had moderate levels of generalized anxiety disorder and depression,\rwhile these levels were higher among the patients.