Dentist's perception and usage of Personal Protective Equipment –A Cross sectional survey

Introduction: Personal protective equipment (PPE) refers to protective clothing, helmets, gloves, face shields, goggles, facemasks and/or respirators or other equipment designed to protect the wearer from injury or the spread of infection or illness. The usage of PPE among health care professionals is increased after Covid 19. Dentists poses high risks to infection due to largernumber of droplets generated during dental procedures. The perception and the usage of Personal Protective Equipment among the dentists may not be same. Hence an online cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among the dentists on perception and usage of Personal Protective Equipment. Materials and methods: A cross sectional only survey using 20closed-ended questionnaire was conducted to assess the perception and usage of Personal Protective Equipment among dentists. A total of 388 dentists were included in the survey. The study subjects were classified into 3 groups. Group A-Practitioner alone (in Clinic/Hospital), Group B-Academician (Working in academic institution alone without practice) and Group C- Both (clinician and academician). Results: Most of the dental practitioners who are affiliated to dental colleges as well as having or working in clinician (Group C) had received formal training or demonstration regarding donning and doffing of PPE compared to individual practitioners or academician (Group A and B) and it is statistically significant (P<0.05) and many private practitioner’s faced shortage of PPE compared to academician and both (Private practitioners and academician) which is statistically significant (P<0.05) Conclusion: Compared to Group A and B academician and clinician individually dental professionals who are working as both academician and clinician (Group C) have better perception and know the proper usage of PPE which might be because of the exposure in both college and clinical setup.