ABSTRACT
Objective COVID-19 resulted in dentistry being declared high-risk occupation due to the mode of the spread of the virus. This resulted in partial and complete closure of dental practices around the world, reducing revenue of practitioners. Hence, study aims to evaluate financial impact on dental practitioners in Pakistan and UAE. Materials and Methods A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2020 to January 2021. It involved questions relating to demographics and financial challenges faced, associated with change in standard operating procedures due to pandemic. The descriptive statistics were expressed as frequency and percentage. Statistical analysis was performed by Chi-square test or Fischer's exact test. Results In total, 427 respondents participated in the study. Approximately half (55.7%) of the respondents had their practices shut down, while 89.9% observed decrease in patient flow. The majority (82.2%) of respondents had to buy personal protective equipment (PPE), whereas 66.7% had to pay a high cost for that. Almost 87.3% of respondents reported having experienced financial constraints because of the pandemic related changes to the practice. Moreover, 27.8% reported staff being laid off, which were mostly due to monetary constrictions. Conclusion Dental professionals faced a considerable impact on their practice and financial situation due to pandemic. Policies must be made to support such professionals in times of emergency who are at higher risk of being most affected with respect to health and finances. © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 emerged from the seafood market of Wuhan, spread in many countries, including Pakistan within three months. This led many countries including, to take strict precautionary measures including strict lockdowns, to control the spread of COVID-19. Pakistan is currently facing a pandemic and economic crisis together. Spreading the awareness to the people in Pakistan is a huge challenge, owing to lower literacy rate, increasing poverty, lack of health care facilities, socio-demographic factors and disinformation pose a challenge to control COVID-19 in this region of the world. The purpose of this study was to assess the level of awareness and knowledge in general the public using an online survey.Methodology: The questionnaire was designed relying on available knowledge on COVID-19. The link of the questionnaire was sent to various participants using emails and social media such as Facebook and WhatsApp. Total 653 participants filled the online questionnaire and gave responses to all fields required in the questionnaire.Socio-demographic distribution of the participants indicated a higher number of participants were male in gender category, those who were unmarried, living in urban areas, having higher degrees and lower economic status were higher in numbers.