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COVID-19 knowledge and adherence of dental practitioners to health authority safety guidelines during a pandemic.

OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to assess the degree of dental practitioner adherence to recommendations made during the COVID-19 pandemic.


METHOD AND MATERIALS
An online questionnaire was distributed via social media among dental practitioners in Israel who worked during the COVID-19 outbreak.


RESULTS
In total, 144 dental practitioners completed the survey; it was found that dental practitioner adherence to all the official PPE use recommendations was 69.8%, whereas 36.8% of dental practitioners reported the use of N95 when needed. Knowledge of self-protection against COVID-19 was rated as "very good" by 37.5% of responders. However, only 25.7% felt "highly protected" by personal protective equipment. Interestingly, many dental practitioners (46.8%) reported adherence to extra protection in addition to the required PPE communicated by the Ministry of Health guidelines.


CONCLUSION
Stricter regimens should be applied for dealing with the current challenging pandemic, especially in clinical work with a higher risk for viral transmission. Specific strategies should be followed to ensure good practice to improve dental practitioners' and patients' safety.