key: cord-0832754-5h6g4514 authors: Alawia, Ruwaa; Riad, Abanoub; Kateeb, Elham title: Risk Perception and Readiness of Dental Students to Treat Patients Amid COVID‐19: Implication for Dental Education date: 2020-08-07 journal: Oral Dis DOI: 10.1111/odi.13593 sha: 67fb50bf2d04aab159fd6151b28352bdc420f280 doc_id: 832754 cord_uid: 5h6g4514 nan Dental settings have one of the highest risks of infection transmission (Jamal et al., 2020; Mohebati et al., 2010) . Therefore, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented significant challenge for dental students and infection control measures. Data presented here was extracted from a survey conducted among Palestinian dental students in their clinical study years to evaluate their readiness to return to dental care provision during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 305 dental students from Al-Quds University (AQU) and Arab American University (AAU) completed the questionnaire in mid-May, 2020. Thirty-four percent of the current sample (n=103) perceived COVID-19 as very dangerous and 84.3% (n=257) believed that COVID-19 is a serious public health issue. Fifty-five percent (n=168) did not consider themselves prepared for this outbreak and 66.2% (n=202) did not think that their outpatient clinics' infection control measures prior to COVID-19 are adequate to receive patients during this pandemic. Eighty-eight percent of the students (n=269) admitted to fear of transmitting the virus to family and friends. This fear was mainly related to their perception that standard precautions used in dental settings are inadequate and make it unsafe to deal with patients during the current pandemic (2= 50.45, p <.001) . Thus, 82% of students (n=250) preferred to avoid working with COVID-19 suspected patients. This perception of unsafety related to the prior-to-COVID-19 infection measures also impacted the level of confidence these students had in dealing with COVID-19 patients (2= 25.8, p = ,.01) . Only 26% (n=80) of the students had "considerable-to-great" level of confidence in handling suspected COVID-19 patients ( Figure 1 ). It is obvious from current data that students' confidence in handling COVID-19 patients and the fear of transmitting infection to family and friends were related to their perception of the inadequacy of standard infection control protocols used prior to COVID-19. Therefore, dental schools need to invest in the new infection control measures placed by national authorities, and adopted by universities as their new norm. As an example, AQU followed a very strict protocol in reopening their student dental clinics and ensured all advanced PPE needed to implement these protocols. This should be accompanied by periodic updating of students' knowledge about infectious diseases and control measures. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved Another important point that needs to be addressed by dental schools following the COVID-19 pandemic is how to change current teaching philosophy to make it more resilient for future pandemics and crises. First, dental schools need to teach their students not to depend solely on the current restorative model and to learn alternative evidence-based treatment options that focus on prevention, minimal intervention, and less aerosol generation. Examples are Atraumatic Restorative Treatment, Hall Technique and the use of Silver Diamine Fluoride (SDF) in disease stabilization (de Amorim et al., 2018; Khan et al., 2019; Slayton et al., 2018) . Second, students in this sample believed that they have an important role in educating patients about COVID-19; this sense of responsibility needs to be maximized in emphasizing the importance of dentists' role in pandemics in providing care and supporting other frontline health care providers when needed. Dental students need to view themselves not only as excellent dentists but also as practicing healthcare professionals providing oral health within the context of systemic health and infection prevention. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved The authors would like to thank each anonymously participating dental student of Al-Quds University (Palestine) and Arab American University (Palestine) who contributed to making this work possible. The authors declare that they have no competing interests. The data that supports the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Survival percentages of atraumatic restorative treatment (ART) restorations and sealants in posterior teeth: aAn updated systematic review and meta-analysis Overview of transnational recommendations for COVID-19 transmission control in dental care settings Effectiveness of Hall Technique for primary carious molars: A systematic review and meta-analysis Current risks of occupational Bblood-Bborne viral infection Evidence-based clinical practice guideline on nonrestorative treatments for carious lesions: A report from the American Dental Association Accepted Article This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved