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Background: India is a major contributor to the global burden of human papilloma virus (HPV) infection and associated diseases like cervical and oropharyngeal cancers. Hence, it is essential to recognize the existing knowledge pool of current healthcare students about HPV and its preventive measures to translate this into benefits for the society in the future. Objective: To determine the awareness and knowledge among dental and medical undergraduate students regarding HPV and its diagnosis and prevention. Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled in 577 dental and undergraduate medical students from a tertiary-care teaching hospital. A questionnaire containing 20 closed-ended multiple-choice questions was used to assess their knowledge regarding HPV and its transmission, cervical cancer and its screening, as well as HPV vaccines and their attitude towards them. Descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U test, and Chi square test were employed for statistical analysis. p ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The study consisted of 52.68% dental and 47.31% medical students, with a mean age of 20.95 ± 1.82 years, M:F ratio of 0.7:1, and a mean overall score of 10.75 ± 5.18 (average). The mean scores for knowledge about HPV, its vaccination, and its diagnosis were 7.98 ± 3.26 (good), 1.61 ± 0.95 (average), and 1.15 ± 1.16 (average), respectively. These scores showed no significant difference between the courses as well as the genders (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Overall, the dental and medical undergraduate students presented an average level of knowledge and awareness regarding HPV and its prevention. This reflects a greater need for educating healthcare professionals in order to have a ripple effect on society at large.

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Context: The role of anxiety and depression in causing temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) has been well established in the past; however, there are no studies on dental students that evaluate both the TMD and psychological factors. Aim: To determine the prevalence of TMD among dental students and its correlation with gender, anxiety, and depression. Materials and Methods: The study included 384 dental students (both undergraduates and postgraduates). The prevalence and severity of TMD were assessed with an anamnestic questionnaire. The severity of anxiety and depression was evaluated by Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale after eliciting a detailed case history to include/exclude the participants. Statistical tests, including Shapiro-Wilk's, Chi-square, and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, were done to check the normality distribution, association, and correlation, respectively. Results: The results revealed that 52.9% of the students had some degree of TMD. There was no statistically significant difference in the TMD severity between different gender (P = 0.373). About 51% of the students had anxiety, and 24% had depression. There was a statistically significantly high level of anxiety in females than in males (P = 0.046); however, not for depression (P = 0.312). There was a significant positive correlation between TMD severity and anxiety (P < 0.001) but not depression (P = 0.10). Conclusions: A high TMD prevalence was observed in dental students. There was a significant positive correlation between TMD severity with anxiety but not gender and depression. Psychological counseling and appropriate management are the need of the hour to prevent further complications.

Background: COVID-19 vaccine is the mighty weapon opted by all the countries across the globe in an attempt to eradicate the fatal COVID-19 pandemic. The myths on the COVID-19 vaccine are spreading widely, causing a hindrance to this noble preventive measure. The prevalence of such myths among the healthcare professionals may be toxic and deadly. Aim & Objectives: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of the healthcare professionals regarding the myths on COVID-19 vaccination and to demystify them. Materials and Methods: An 18-item questionnaire evaluating knowledge, attitude, and practice based on the existing myths on COVID-19 vaccination was circulated through Google Forms among the 412 healthcare professionals of six disciplines belonging to a private University. The responses obtained were subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS 20 software package. Results: A total of 385 health professionals participated in this study. The majority of them had medium knowledge (165) and positive attitude (273) with the mean knowledge and attitude scores of 3.82 (SD-1.55) out of 6 and 4.3 (SD-1.58) out of 7 respectively. Even though 312 participants got vaccinated, 72 of them failed to receive it. The knowledge scores showed a high statistically significant difference among the participants of different designations (p=0.001), but not with gender, field, and staff with different years of experience (p>0.05). The attitude scores were statistically different among participants of fields and designation (p<0.05) but not among genders (p=0.31) and staff with different years of experience (p=0.87). Knowledge and attitude scores showed a positive linear correlation and a high statistically significant difference (p<0.001). Conclusion: This study recommends more enhanced education programs on COVID-19 vaccination for the health professionals and demands an improved knowledge, attitude, and practice among them to achieve the goal of 100% vaccination so as to completely eradicate the COVID-19 pandemic.