ABSTRACT
Background: Novel Coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) has become an emerging public health emergency condition and it has created a panic in many countries. Worldwide strict lockdown and social distancing procedures have been followed to prevent the spread of Covid-19 infection. Yet a large number of emergency patients still go to the dental clinics and hospitals for treatment. Dental practitioners use a set of hand instruments to treat patients such as excavators, mouth mirrors, probes etc. It is mandatory for dentists to have knowledge and awareness about diagnosis, precaution and the management of any epidemic infection. Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the knowledge and awareness of instrument sterilization by dental practitioners during Covid-19 pandemic. Materials & Methods: A selfdeveloped questionnaire was developed and distributed among the dental practitioners in Chennai, India. A convenient sampling technique was used for the survey. Data was collected from 100 dental practitioners and analyzed statistically using SPSS software. Results: The findings show that most of the practitioners have good knowledge and are aware of instrument sterilization and different techniques are employed in general before and after the treatment. All the responses were statistically analyzed using SPSS software. Chi-square test was used to find the correlation between parameters (P value>0.05), correlation of age and mode of transmission was done where the P value was 0.120 which is statistically non-significant. Conclusion: The results of the present study show that the knowledge and awareness of instrument sterilization among dental practitioners is adequate during this Covid-19 pandemic.