Psychological Impact of COVID-19 in the Setting of Dentistry: A Review Article
Salcedo-Bellido, I (通讯作者),Univ Granada, Dept Med Prevent & Salud Publ, Granada 18011, Spain.;Salcedo-Bellido, I (通讯作者),Consortium Biomed Res Epidemiol & Publ Hlth CIBER, Madrid 28029, Spain.;Salcedo-Bellido, I (通讯作者),Inst Invest Biosanitaria Ibs GRANADA, Granada 18014, Spain.
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.