D Purushothaman Vishalakshy

Abstract

Background: The sudden outbreak of Covid 19 resulted in serious financial challenges and implications among private dental practitioners. Even though dental practitioners are now trying to retrieve back to pre-Covid state, concerns persist since Covid cases are unpredictably peaking every now and then. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted among 497 private dental practitioners of Kerala to assess the clinical, psychological, and financial concerns during COVID-19 pandemic. Questionnaire was circulated through IDA official Whats App groups as online google forms. Data so obtained was entered and analysed using SPSStrial version 21. Qualitative variables were expressed in proportions. Association of domains with sociodemographic characteristics were assessed using Chi Square test. Results: Main clinical concern reported by 52.3% of participants was transmission of infection to family members, main financial concern of 66.2% of participants was reduced income from practice, and 25.8% of the participants reported ‘lot of stress’. It was found that practitioners with more than 10 years’ experience had moreclinical concerns, while those with less than 10 years’ experience had more financial concerns. Conclusion: Our survey highlighted the concerns of private dental practitioners of Kerala in their practice during the pandemic. It is expected that practitioners, enriched with the experience acquired during the recent outbreak will be able to efficiently redefine their scope of practice and adjust to new circumstances. Keywords: Clinical, Concern, Financial, Private dental practice, Psychological

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Abstract

Medical students are considered to be representative of the educated, influential and motivated class of individuals and are considered to have a better perception and realization of maintaining oral health when compared to general population. Hence the present study aims to assess the periodontal health practices and awareness among medical professional students. This cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical students and interns of Govt Medical College Thrissur using an online proforma and analysis done using SPSS. A statistically significant association was noted between gender and periodontal health practices and also between periodontal health awareness and year of study and posting category. Interns were 2.56 times more aware of periodontal health than students with a p value ? 0.01. Clinical students were 2.4 times more aware of periodontal health than preclinical students with a p value ? 0.01. Statistically significant mild positive correlation was observed between age and periodontal health awareness with Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.379 and a mild negative, statistically non-significant correlation was observed between age and periodontal health practice. There is a need to further educate and motivate medical students on oral and periodontal health practice so that it improves the future efforts of medical professionals in contributing to oral health as they are often the first contact for patients. Keywords: Awareness, Medical students, Periodontal Health, Practices, Periodontitis

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