Brazilian dental students and COVID-19: A survey on knowledge and perceptions

This study evaluated the knowledge and perceptions of Brazilian dental students about COVID-19 and the undergraduate clinical practice during the COVID-19 outbreak by a self-administered Web-based questionnaire.

A social network campaign on Instagram was raised to approach the target population. The survey covered demographic and academic profile, general knowledge, preventive measures and perception about COVID-19. Descriptive statistics were used to identify frequencies and distributions of variables, which were compared by type of institution and current year of enrolment using the Chi-square or Fisher's exact tests (α = 0.05).

A total of 833 valid responses were received over 10 days. Students were able to identify the incubation period, main symptoms and contagious routes of the disease but struggled in recognising the name of the virus responsible for the pandemic. Hand washing before and after a dental appointment with a patient (97.7%) followed by the use of barriers to protect mucosa (97.2%) were the more frequently recognised measures to prevent COVID-19 spread in the dental office. As for the perception of COVID-19, 73.2% of the dental students perceived the disease as severe, whilst only 11.1% of them thought that COVID-19 is severe only for people presenting risk factors. Dental student's knowledge and perception were associated with the type of institution and year of enrolment.

In summary, the dental students demonstrated an acceptable general knowledge about COVID-19, but dental schools will need to address gaps in knowledge, preventive measures, and perceptions to ensure a safer return to in person activities.