Safe practices of biomedical and dental waste management amongst practicing dental professionals amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Biomedical waste can potentially compromise the environment and public safety if not safely disposed. OBJECTIVE: The aim was to assess the understanding and safe practices of biomedical and dental waste amongst the dental practitioners and practical year students amid the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A structured and validated questionnaire consisting of 21 closed ended questions was used to collect data from dental practitioners and students working in hospitals and clinics. The questionnaire was distributed in paper and digital form amongst the participants. Descriptive analysis was performed for categorical and numerical variables. Spearman correlation test was used to assess the relationship between awareness and waste disposal practices of dentists. A p-value of≤0.05 was considered as statistically significant. RESULTS: More than three fourth of the participants were aware of proper dental waste disposal steps. One half was aware of the color-coded segregation of biomedical waste management. Two third of the participants were deploying safe biomedical waste practices. Nearly 68% subjects allocated separate labeled containers for disposal of COVID-19 suspected patient's waste. Furthermore, 71.63% participants were practicing PCR test before aerosol procedures. While 88.65% participants believed that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the financial burden in terms of safe practices and dental waste management. CONCLUSION: The awareness and practices of the participants towards dental waste management was found to be moderate. Satisfactory COVID-19 prevention and transmission measures were observed amongst the participants. BMW management lessons should be included in the academic curriculum and training program needs to be adopted for mass awareness.

Evaluating the Influence of COVID-19 Among Dental Practitioners After Lockdown.

Clinical activities at dental premises after the COVID-19 lockdown period or post-COVID-19 are likely to be a challenge for all practicing dentists. To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on dentists and change in dental practice following lockdown, a total of 1150 participants were approached through online survey forms registered on www.surveys.google. A link containing details of the questionnaire and a consent form was sent to dentists through emails and social media forums. The questionnaire included 3 domains comprising of seventeen questions. The first section focused on demographics. The second section inquired about the change in dental practice, that is, clinical hours, use of PPE, type of treatment, and patient flow. The third section investigated the impact of COVID-19 on dentistry. Means, standard deviation, and percentages were calculated using descriptive statistics. Chi-square was used to find an association between different variables. The response rate was 87%. Demographic factors revealed participants aged from 20.45 to 40.55 years. The data showed around 89.6% (896) of dentists have altered their clinical working hours post lockdown and, approximately, 59.7% (597) of dentists provided only emergency treatments. 88.1% (881) of the dentists wore PPE during dental procedures. Overall, a huge negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was observed among practicing dentists in terms of the dental supply chain, cost, and availability of dental equipment, treatment cost, and bill payments.COVID-19 pandemic compromised dental care. Though dentists were taking precautionary measures and have changed their practice according to the guidelines provided by the ADA and World Health Organization, they were still experiencing monetary loss due to decrease patient influx post lockdown.