COVID-19 Outbreak in North Italy: An Overview on Dentistry. A Questionnaire Survey

COVID-19 Outbreak in North Italy: An Overview on Dentistry. A Questionnaire Survey

Guglielmo Campus, Maria Grazia Cagetti, Jean Louis Cairoli, Andrea Senna

This survey assessed the symptoms/signs, protective measures, awareness, and perception levels regarding COVID-19 among dentists in Lombardy, Italy. Moreover, an analysis of the answers gathered in areas with different prevalence of the disease was carried out. All Lombardy’s dentists were sent an online ad hoc questionnaire. The questionnaire was divided into four domains: personal data, precautionary measures (before patient arrival; in the waiting room; in the operating room), awareness, and perception. Three thousand five hundred ninety-nine questionnaires were analyzed. Five hundred two (14.43%) participants had suffered one or more symptoms referable to COVID-19. Thirty-one subjects were positive to the virus SARS-CoV-2 and 16 subjects developed the disease. Only a small number of dentists (n = 72, 2.00%) were confident of avoiding infection; dentists working in low COVID-19 prevalence areas were more confident than those working in the Milan area and high prevalence area (61.24%, 61.23%, and 64.29%, p

2020

infection, infection control, dentist, Awareness, protective measures, COVID-19

DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17113835

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

MDPI AG

Medicine