ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Gender-based preferences are common in dental practice and maybe even more prevalent in academic dentistry. A large number of females have been entering the practice of general dentistry for the past two decades. The present study was done to assess dental students' perception of gender preferences in dentistry using a questionnaire in Saudi Arabia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A survey was conducted using a pretested questionnaire among dental interns pursuing their internship at different dental schools in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaires were distributed to 482 interns who were willing to participate in the survey. All the responses were collected, tabulated, and analyzed accordingly using appropriate statistical methods. RESULTS: Four hundred and eighty-two dental interns (180 males and 302 females) responded to the survey. Most female interns (68%) prefer female patients for their treatments to the opposite gender. Seventy-five percent of the male interns felt more capable than females to handle stress and workload associated with branches such as prosthodontics, surgery, and implantology. 52.1% felt that female students fared well in academics. CONCLUSION: The present study shows that more females are taking up this profession in the current situation. It also shows that females are as competitive as males in dentistry and that most of the dental interns want to take up postgraduation after completion of the course. Both males and females are given equal working space and respect in this field of dentistry.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Dentistry can be an overstressed career. Dentists come across countless routes of stress in dental schools. Onset foot in clinical training, they can find that the number and type of stressors often grow. Dental students encounter high levels of academic stress, which can adversely influence them from their study years working with phantom teeth through their preclinical and clinical practice years. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the world population to a high risk of infection that comprises a major stress factor, especially for vulnerable groups such as dental students. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess the levels of COVID-19-related stress and anxiety, changes in hygienic and social habits, as well as subjective worries regarding the dental profession among dental students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A self-structured questionnaire was sent to dental students of two dental schools in the city of Jeddah. It included demographic data, questions about the level of change in personal hygiene and social habits, students' perception about the sufficiency of information received during the outbreak and its source, subjective worries regarding the dental profession, and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item Scale. Three hundred and eight responses were received. RESULTS: Moderate and severe anxieties were reported in 41% and 7% of students, respectively. About 57% of respondents agreed to continue e-learning in the theoretical part only, 1% for the clinical part only, 32% in both, and 10% were not interested in continuing e-learning. Most of the students reported that they received excellent information about COVID-19 during the outbreak, with social media as the main source of information for the majority, followed by the Health Department. A significant number of dentists (66%) wanted to temporarily shut their dental practices until the number of COVID-19 case rates reduces considerably. CONCLUSION: A considerable percentage of dental students are anxious and changed their hygienic and social habits due to COVID-19. This anxiety reflects worries about the dental profession in one-third of participants that necessitate counseling services and psychological support.
