Awareness and Practices of Dental Students and Dentists Regarding Infection Control in Prosthodontic Clinics

Abstract

Background: Patient safety is a priority for achieving higher quality health care standards and human error> reduction. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of appropriate infection control practices in a prosthodontic clinic in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 460 dental students and dentists recruited from five centers. Data were collected by self-administered questionnaires> composed of 25 questions. The questionnaires> assessed infection control practices in prosthodontic clinics, including wearable barriers, disinfection measures among patients, disinfection of laboratory submissions, and proper infection control. Other questions assessed sources of knowledge, self-evaluation of knowledge, implementation, and satisfaction with knowledge application. Results: Total correct answers for proper practice (16 questions) had a mean of 12.5 with a standard deviation of 2.8. The most commonly practiced procedure was wearing a mask (99.8%) and the least was sterilizing the facebow before its use by the patient (53.7%). Participants from governmental colleges (m = 13.67, SD = 2.17) had significantly higher scores than participants from private colleges (m = 12.35, SD = 2.9), p <0.001. Only 2.8% had never attended a lecture, and only 13.8% had never had hands-on training for infection control. Despite 49.1% evaluating themselves as having very poor to poor knowledge, 90.7% had fair to very good valuation of their infection control implementations, and 87.6% were satisfied with their knowledge and performance levels. Conclusion: Dental students and dentists have high levels of adequate infection control practices in the prosthodontic clinic despite the moderate level of their satisfaction with their knowledge.