Role of Dentist: COVID19 and Mucormycosis.

Dental practice has evolved over time and has adapted to the challenges that it has faced. The risk of infection spread via droplet and airborne routes poses a significant risk to the dentist who works close to patients. The risk of cross-infection between dental health-care personnel and patients can be very high due to the peculiar arrangements of dental settings. Dental clinics should have air purification systems with high volume excavators and negative pressure rooms for COVID-19 screening. Mucormycosis is a fungal disease that mostly occurs in immunocompromised individuals and those with uncontrolled diabetes. Dental extraction can trigger the occurrence. Increased occurrence of mucormycosis is seen in COVID-affected patients. This article gives a review on the dentistry-related transmission of COVID 19, the relation of COVID and mucormycosis.

Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on dental interns in Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has emerged as a global pandemic recognized by the World Health Organization. It has a significant impact on Saudi Arabia's educational process, resulting in several universities suspending on-campus teaching, exams, and training. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to evaluate the effect of COVID-19 on dental students' examination, internship placement, and subsequent impact on preparedness and confidence. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted to gather data from dental interns in Saudi Arabia using a pre-tested online questionnaire. Convenient sampling was applied to collect data from 5th September to 15th September 2020. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23. Descriptive data were presented as frequency and percentages. The Chi-square test was used to evaluate the relationship between variables. RESULTS: Data of 409 dental interns from 8 dental schools reported that 209 (51%) participants' exams were affected as the format was changed to online examination. 130 (31.8%) dental interns strongly agreed that assistance in hospitals during the outbreak of COVID-19 would complement their learning opportunities. Whereas 115(28.1%) respondents strongly agreed that dental schools' measures to modify their curriculum were necessary.The impact of COVID-19 on dental intern preparedness discovered that the affected exams had a significant effect on final year students' readiness to begin the internship (p = 0.042). Considering students' confidence in starting the training earlier than expected, the student course had a statistically significant impact on their confidence (p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: The current study demonstrates that COVID-19 had disrupted dental interns' preparedness towards clinical rotation and decreased their confidence performing in the clinical setup. Due to being unprepared and having low confidence, most dental interns were not ready to start working in the hospital on time.

COVID-19: Fear and Anxiety among Healthcare Workers in Saudi Arabia. A Cross-Sectional Study.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is an extremely contagious respiratory disease. It poses a serious threat to healthcare workers which may cause substantial degree of psychological distress. This study aimed to evaluate the level of fear and anxiety among healthcare workers. A cross sectional study was designed to collect data from healthcare workers in Saudi Arabia using an online questionnaire. A non-probability convenient sampling technique was used to collect the data from 1st August to 10th August 2020 with the exclusion of non-healthcare worker and general public. A 5-point Likert scale was used to evaluate the level of fear and anxiety. The data was analyzed by using Spss version 23 .The descriptive data were represented as frequencies and percentage. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was applied to control the confounding factors and assess the relationship between variables. Data analyzed 737 participants revealed that 10.7%, 73.5%, and 15.7% of HCWs had a mild, moderate, and severe degree of fear and anxiety respectively. The multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that gender and specialty of the participants were significantly associated with moderate and severe anxiety level. This study demonstrates that two-third of the healthcare workers had a moderate risk of fear and anxiety. However, females participants found to have elevated fear and anxiety level. Social distancing has a major impact on social well-being therefore its important to address social support through a policy. Further studies are needed to explore the mental health condition of healthcare workers in order to develop evidence based strategies.

Knowledge towards COVID-19 among healthcare students in the central region of Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional observational study.

STUDY PURPOSE: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious illness of high public concern. Healthcare students are directly or indirectly exposed to this disease. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge of healthcare students in the central region of Saudi Arabia. STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey was planned to collect information from healthcare students living in the central region of Saudi Arabia. A questionnaire was formulated to evaluate the healthcare student's knowledge towards COVID-19 pandemic. The collected data were analysed by using frequencies of correct knowledge answers. RESULTS: A total of 612 students were analysed for the study. The overall knowledge score of healthcare students was 65.7%. The regression analysis showed a significant association between academic year and knowledge score p<0.001. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis demonstrates satisfactory student's knowledge but lacks awareness about background and mode of transmission of this disease; therefore, there is a strong need for further education and training programmes.