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Brazilian primary and secondary public oral health attention: are dentists ready to face COVID-19 Pandemic?
OBJECTIVE: Investigate knowledge and practice of Brazilian public primary and secondary healthcare dentists during COVID-19 pandemic.
METHODS: An online questionnaire, with socio-demographic and COVID-19 knowledge questions, was utilized.
RESULTS: A total of 4,048 dentists working in the Brazilian public primary and secondary healthcare system were investigated. 4,024 (99.41%) believe COVID-19 can be transmitted through dental procedures. It was observed a fair level of COVID-19 symptoms knowledge by these dentists (3.76±1.27 of 6.00), as well as a disbelieve in the actual personal protective equipment (3,382; 83.55%) and biosafety procedures (3,278; 80.98%) utilized as an efficient form of COVID-19 transmission prevention. Country region, performance of social distancing, dental specialty, the believe on personal protective equipment and biosafety preventive measures influenced the likelihood of dentists to perform dental treatment, either elective or urgent, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
CONCLUSION: The need of extra preventive barriers for dental treatment may bring an extra financial stress in the Brazilian public primary and secondary healthcare system, as well as in the patient-dentist relationship, which may have to be reframed. Internationally accepted public guidelines policies regarding dental treatment safety, as well as the technological development of preventive tools, are needed to deal with the challenges brought by COVID-19.
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