Adherence of Dentists to Health Authorities' Guidelines During the Pandemic

Objectives: To assess the degree of dentists' adherence to the Worldwide Health Authorities' protection guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: An online questionnaire was distributed via social media, among dental practitioners in Israel who worked during the COVID-19 outbreak between April 1st, 2020, and April 17th, 2020.
Results: The survey was completed by 144 dentists. Full adherence to all of the recommendations was reported by 69.83% of the responders, whereas 36.8% of dentists reported the use of N95 face masks. Many dentists (46.78%) reported on use of extra protection which was not required. Self-perceived knowledge of COVID-19 was rated as “very good” by 37.1% of responders. However, only 25.5% felt “highly protected” by personal protective equipment.
Conclusions: 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 dentists' and patients' safety.