A Descriptive Pilot Study of the Immediate Impacts of COVID-19 on Dental and Dental Hygiene Students' Readiness and Wellness

Overview

Journal J Dent Educ

Date 2020 Oct 21

PMID 33084054

Citations 17

Authors

Aderonke A Akinkugbe

Dina T Garcia

Carlos S Smith

Tegwyn H Brickhouse

Maghboeba Mosavel

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The ongoing novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted dental students training across the U.S. academic dental institutions by moving classroom instruction to an online modality, limiting patient care, canceling external rotations, and rescheduling of licensure examinations.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the immediate impacts of COVID-19 on students' readiness to enter clinical practice or residency and its association with well-being (anxiety, perceived stress, coping and social support, and resilience).

Methods: An online REDCap survey was distributed to 407 D1-D4 year dental students and 29 DH3-DH4 year dental hygiene students enrolled at a U.S. dental school. The survey consisted of readiness and wellness measures as well as socio-demographic variables.

Results: Overall response rate was 58% (N = 252) ranging from 40% among D4 students to 72% among D1 students. About half (55%) of the respondents were White, a third (34%) Asians and 5% were African Americans. Ninety-two percent were non-Hispanics while 62% were female. Overall mean (SD) anxiety score was 6.5 (5.3) and 26% of respondents reported moderate or severe levels of anxiety. Anxiety score differed significantly by gender with females reporting higher anxiety levels, mean (SD) = 7.3 (5.5) versus 5.2 (4.7) for males; P = 0.002). Furthermore, mean anxiety score differed significantly among the dental school classes, ranging from 5.5 (5.3) among D2 students to 11.8 (6.2) in DH4 students (P = 0.02).

Conclusion: Academic dental institutions need to be responsive to the heightened anxiety and uncertainly levels of students and provide responsive training and support to mitigate its effects.

Citing Articles

Readiness for professional practice among health professions education graduates: a systematic review.

Wynne K, Mwangi F, Onifade O, Abimbola O, Jones F, Burrows J Front Med (Lausanne). 2024; 11:1472834.

PMID: 39582978 PMC: 11583157. DOI: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1472834.

Influence of clinical experience in detecting calcifications of the head and neck region on panoramic radiographs: an app-based evaluation.

Schneider B, Grun P, Degel U, Strobele D, Bandura P, Pfaffeneder-Mantai F Ann Med Surg (Lond). 2024; 86(11):6447-6454.

PMID: 39525776 PMC: 11543158. DOI: 10.1097/MS9.0000000000002638.

Impact of COVID-19 on Depression, Anxiety and Stress of Dental Students: A Systematic Review.

Gunewardena N, Hironaka S, Khan H, Rassam T, Kroon J Eur J Dent Educ. 2024; 29(1):29-35.

PMID: 39351996 PMC: 11729239. DOI: 10.1111/eje.13043.

Re-exploring Dental Education During the COVID-19 Era: A Look Through the Challenges Faced, Solutions, and Their Impact on Traditional Methods.

Mulla S, Bhattacharjee M, Methal S, Patil A, Shrivastava S, Mane S Cureus. 2024; 16(8):e67106.

PMID: 39290931 PMC: 11406199. DOI: 10.7759/cureus.67106.

COVID-19 Safety: Perspectives from Dental Students.

Hung M, Yevseyevich D, Mohajeri A, Hablitzel N, Su S, Lipsky M Dent J (Basel). 2024; 12(8).

PMID: 39195108 PMC: 11352729. DOI: 10.3390/dj12080264.

References

Wilkinson T, Ali A, Bell C, Carter F, Frampton C, McKenzie J . The impact of learning environment disruption on medical student performance. Med Educ. 2013; 47(2):210-3. DOI: 10.1111/medu.12065. View

Cecchini J, Friedman N . Investigative study of dental hygiene students' and dental students' anxiety and dental stressors. Int J Psychosom. 1986; 33(2):43-7. View

Ferretti L, Wymant C, Kendall M, Zhao L, Nurtay A, Abeler-Dorner L . Quantifying SARS-CoV-2 transmission suggests epidemic control with digital contact tracing. Science. 2020; 368(6491). PMC: 7164555. DOI: 10.1126/science.abb6936. View

Giudice A, Barone S, Muraca D, Averta F, Diodati F, Antonelli A . Can Teledentistry Improve the Monitoring of Patients during the Covid-19 Dissemination? A Descriptive Pilot Study. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020; 17(10). PMC: 7277372. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17103399. View

Cohen S, Kamarck T, Mermelstein R . A global measure of perceived stress. J Health Soc Behav. 1983; 24(4):385-96. View

Burk D, Bender D . Use and perceived effectiveness of student support services in a first-year dental student population. J Dent Educ. 2005; 69(10):1148-60. View

Smith B, Dalen J, Wiggins K, Tooley E, Christopher P, Bernard J . The brief resilience scale: assessing the ability to bounce back. Int J Behav Med. 2008; 15(3):194-200. DOI: 10.1080/10705500802222972. View

Rada R, Johnson-Leong C . Stress, burnout, anxiety and depression among dentists. J Am Dent Assoc. 2004; 135(6):788-94. DOI: 10.14219/jada.archive.2004.0279. View

Roberts R, Ellingson P . Perceived environmental stressors for dental hygiene students. J Dent Educ. 1996; 60(10):836-41. View

10.

Harris P, Taylor R, Minor B, Elliott V, Fernandez M, ONeal L . The REDCap consortium: Building an international community of software platform partners. J Biomed Inform. 2019; 95:103208. PMC: 7254481. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbi.2019.103208. View

11.

Polychronopoulou A, Divaris K . Perceived sources of stress among Greek dental students. J Dent Educ. 2005; 69(6):687-92. View

12.

Harris P, Taylor R, Thielke R, Payne J, Gonzalez N, Conde J . Research electronic data capture (REDCap)--a metadata-driven methodology and workflow process for providing translational research informatics support. J Biomed Inform. 2008; 42(2):377-81. PMC: 2700030. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbi.2008.08.010. View

13.

The A, Adam L, Meldrum A, Brunton P . Dental students' and staff perceptions of the impact of learning environment disruption on their learning and teaching experiences. Eur J Dent Educ. 2017; 22(3):151-159. DOI: 10.1111/eje.12293. View

14.

Spitzer R, Kroenke K, Williams J, Lowe B . A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: the GAD-7. Arch Intern Med. 2006; 166(10):1092-7. DOI: 10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092. View

15.

Kocalevent R, Berg L, Beutel M, Hinz A, Zenger M, Harter M . Social support in the general population: standardization of the Oslo social support scale (OSSS-3). BMC Psychol. 2018; 6(1):31. PMC: 6050647. DOI: 10.1186/s40359-018-0249-9. View

16.

Mitchell A, Crane P, Kim Y . Perceived stress in survivors of suicide: psychometric properties of the Perceived Stress Scale. Res Nurs Health. 2008; 31(6):576-85. DOI: 10.1002/nur.20284. View

17.

Holman S, Wietecha M, Gullard A, Peterson J . U.S. dental students' attitudes toward research and science: impact of research experience. J Dent Educ. 2014; 78(3):334-48. View

18.

Wang D, Zhao S, Li T, Zhang Y, Wang X . Preliminary evaluation of a virtual reality dental simulation system on drilling operation. Biomed Mater Eng. 2015; 26 Suppl 1:S747-56. DOI: 10.3233/BME-151366. View

19.

Meng L, Hua F, Bian Z . Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Emerging and Future Challenges for Dental and Oral Medicine. J Dent Res. 2020; 99(5):481-487. PMC: 7140973. DOI: 10.1177/0022034520914246. View

20.

Proffitt E . What will be the new normal for the dental industry?. Br Dent J. 2020; 228(9):678-680. DOI: 10.1038/s41415-020-1583-x. View