COVID-19 and dental anxiety

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) broke out in December 2019 and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020. The anxiety caused by COVID-19 is extremely critical as it causes delays in dental visits. The aim of this study was to determine dental anxiety during COVID-19.

 This descriptive study was conducted online in February 2022 using a self-designed questionnaire consisting of three sections: questions about dental anxiety, questions about fear of COVID-19, and questions about dental anxiety during COVID-19. The content validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed among the studied subjects. The forms were filled out by all 502 patients. Data were analyzed using SPSS 27. The Chi-square test was used to determine the significance levels of the number of positive responses for each question. A p-value of 0.05 was considered significant. 

 Due to the present pandemic, this study found that patients had a great fear of visiting the dentist because they were afraid that they might contract the disease at the dentist or in a dental office. These results showed that the dentist's explanation of the dental work process was critical in reducing the fear of contracting COVID-19 from the dentist or dental team (p-value < 0.05) and may increase the number of patient visits for dental problems.

 This study illustrates that people's complaints from COVID-19 and other similar conditions are serious. We must always define how we can better serve patients and protect staff because this disease is not the first pandemic and cannot be the last.