Psychological Impact of COVID-19 in the Setting of Dentistry: A Review Article

The worldwide pandemic has exposed healthcare professionals to a high risk of infection, exacerbating the situation of uncertainty caused by COVID-19. The objective of this review was to evaluate the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on dental professionals and their patients. A literature review was conducted using Medline-Pubmed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases, excluding systematic reviews, narratives, meta-analyses, case reports, book chapters, short communications, and congress papers. A modified version of the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to evaluate the quality of the selected studies. The search retrieved 3879 articles, and 123 of these were selected for the review (7 longitudinal and 116 cross-sectional studies). Elevated anxiety levels were observed in dental professionals, especially in younger and female professionals. Except for orthodontic treatments, patients reported a high level of fear that reduced their demand for dentist treatment to emergency cases alone. The results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has had psychological and emotional consequences for dental professionals and their patients. Further research is necessary to evaluate the persistence of this problem over time.

Influencing Factors of Mental Health Status of Dentists Under COVID-19 Epidemic

OBJECTIVE

To investigate dentists' psychological status and influencing factors in Shaanxi Province during the COVID-19 epidemic and assess their perceived wellness.

METHODS

The study was conducted among dentists from Shaanxi Province in China. The basic information was collected through the network questionnaire star platform. Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS-42) and Perceived Wellness Survey (PWS) were used to assess subjects' psychological status and perceived wellness. Univariate linear regression analysis and multivariate analysis were performed on the influencing factors of depression, anxiety, and stress, and t-test and analysis of variance were used to analyze the perceived wellness results.

RESULTS

The results demonstrated that 33.2% of the surveyed dentists were in a state of depression, 37.1% were anxious, and 34.4% reported stress among 256 subjects. Linear Regression analysis results showed that: "years of working," "the impact of COVID-19 on their life, work, and sleep," "worrying about occupational exposure/virus infection," "lacking the awareness of prevention and control measures," "overtime work during the epidemic," "worrying about participating in the supporting work," and "continuous exhaustion from work" were significant contributors to depression, anxiety, and stress status. In addition, the results of PWS found that each dimension of PWS was correlated with depression, anxiety, and stress state, which indicates the individual's physical and mental health state was associated with multiple factors.

CONCLUSION

COVID-19 has significantly impacted dentists' mental health in Shaanxi Province. With these findings, we aim to educate and promote targeted interventions that can be utilized to improve dentists' mental health by analyzing the influencing factors.