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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Eur J Dent 2020; 14(S 01): S116-S122
DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1722107
Original Article

Role of Teledentistry in COVID-19 Pandemic: A Nationwide Comparative Analysis among Dental Professionals

Beenish Abbas
1   Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Foundation University, College of Dentistry, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
,
Mehreen Wajahat
2   Department of Dental Materials, Avicenna Dental College, Lahore, Pakistan
,
Zakia Saleem
3   Department of Dental Education, University College of Dentistry, Lahore, Pakistan
,
Eisha Imran
4   Department of Dental Materials, Dental College, HITEC-Institute of Medical Sciences, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
,
Mehvish Sajjad
5   Department of Dental Materials, Avicenna Dental College, Lahore, Pakistan
,
Zohaib Khurshid 
6   Department of Prosthodontics and Dental Implantology, College of Dentistry, King Faisal University, Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia
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Abstract

Objectives To assess knowledge, awareness, and practice of health care workers about the role of teledentistry in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Materials and Methods A prevalidated structured questionnaire was used to evaluate awareness of general dentists, postgraduate dental students, dental educators, and consultants with postgraduation degrees toward teledentistry. The acceptability, reliability, and language clarity were also pretested. A total of 510 dental professionals contributed to this study.

Statistical Analysis A statistical analysis using SPSS (version 20.0) was performed. Responses were noted as yes or no. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered to be significant. Frequencies described data. Chi-square test was performed for intergroup comparison to evaluate if the knowledge and attitude diverge with the increase in the level of seniority in the profession.

Results Awareness regarding teledentistry is high among general dentists with bachelor of dental surgery qualification in comparison to final-year students and postgraduate dental students. The majority of participants agreed with improvement in health care (88.20%), access to rural areas (82.90%), and general practicing dentist agreed with statistically significant difference (0.00) on saving time by teledentistry.

Conclusion General practicing dentist was observed with high awareness of teledentistry as compared with postgraduate and undergraduate dental students.

Keywords

teledentistry - pandemic - COVID-19


Publication History

Article published online:
31 December 2020

© 2020. European Journal of Dentistry. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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