Knowledge, Attitudes, and Perception of Parents toward Dental Treatment of Children during the COVID-19 Outbreak

This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge of parents regarding the coronavirus outbreak and to assess the change in attitude and perception toward dental treatment during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. A structured questionnaire (on google format) containing 13 questions was used, and each question had 2 or 3 possible answers. The parents/guardians of children (aged 3-14 years) who were school-going were eligible to participate in this study. A total of 800 parents/guardians were interviewed on google reporting format from June to December 2020. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 800 parents/guardians of children, aged 3-14 years, studying in different schools in Chandigarh. According to the survey, a total of 86% of respondents said that they paid high attention to COVID-19 and explained it to their children; 97% reported that they emphasized the importance of hand hygiene and sanitation during the outbreak; 72% admitted that the outbreak has made them more conscious of the importance of maintaining good oral health and hygiene, to avoid visiting the dentist and 84% felt that the routine dental check-ups and appointments should be avoided during the COVID-19 outbreak; almost half of the respondents (47%) thought that the dental environment was a potential source of infection to their kids; 37% felt getting treatment at a dental setup may expose their child to risks of COVID-19; 71% said they would take their child to a dental department if he/she had a severe toothache. Approximately 46% of the respondents expressed confidence about the preventive measures taken in the dental department to ensure safe treatment for their children. In conclusion, all respondents were concerned about COVID-19 and most of them had talked about it with their children often. In addition, a considerable percentage of them showed apprehensions about the preventive measures being taken at the dental operatory and thought that the dental environment could be more dangerous than other environments.

Sharma P, Dhawan P, Rajpal S, et al. Knowledge, Attitudes and Perception of Parents toward Dental Treatment of Children during the COVID-19 Outbreak. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2021;14(5):693-699.