Self-Perceived Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic by Dental Students in Bucharest

Abstract

All social and economic systems worldwide, including the educational one have been disrupted by escalating the global COVID-19 pandemic. One of the most impacted areas were the medical and dental education fields, due to the forced break from clinical practice during the lockdown, which affected both the educational part, as well as the patients. Thus, the main goal of our research was to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the dental students’ education as related to their perceptions and evaluations, in Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 878 dental students who reported their perception of the psychological and educational impact of this period by completing a Google Forms questionnaire. Collected data were statistically analyzed using Stata/IC 16. There was a severe psychological impact among the respondents, the levels of stress being perceived as high and very high (33.83%, n = 297; 28.59%, n = 251), similar to high and very high anxiety feelings (26.54%, n = 233; 24.26%, n = 213). Very high educational impact from the point of view of the acquisition of practical skills (48.52%, n = 426) and future professional perspectives (38.95%, n = 342) were recorded. While online theoretical learning ability was principally low (37.93%, n = 333) despite consistently modified time allocated to the individual study (44.35%, n = 389), most of the students evaluated the efficiency of lecturers in online courses as neutral (41.12%, n = 361). New dentistry teaching programs will have to be adopted taking into account the dynamics of the pandemic and its strong impact on our students, in order to improve both their wellbeing and the sustainability of dental education.

Dental Students in Germany throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Psychological Assessment and Cross-Sectional Survey

“…In the present survey, dental students showed an overall normal or mild psychological impact of the pandemic on anxiety, stress, depression, intrusion, hyperarousal and avoidance, as assessed by the explained survey instruments. This displays a discrepancy to the outcomes of similar studies on healthcare professionals and dental or medical students in other non-European countries, which showed higher levels of psychological distress [4,6,[24][25][26][27][28], and could represent the psychological significance of Germany's claimed success in containing COVID-19 infection rates through introducing new safety regulations in health and educational institutions, stabilizing its population's financial situation throughout the crisis, and communicating the reasons for its emergency policies [6,[29][30][31]. Furthermore, several variables distressing students in German universities throughout the outbreak appear to actively participate in the development of stress-, anxiety-, depressionand PTSD-associated symptoms.…”

Probable Bruxism and Psychological Issues among Dental Students in Serbia during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of studies have evaluated the impact of the pandemic on students' emotional health status, fear, anxiety disorders, depression, and stress [13,17,[30][31][32]. The pandemic impact on dental education is stated to be more destructive, mainly because of the fact that the educational process involves the gain of practical skills, which is performed by the students directly on the patient [33].…”

Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Students, Assistants, and Faculty of a Dental Institute of Saudi Arabia

“…Similarly, during the COVID pandemic, perceived stress among school and university students recorded in virtual classrooms was high to moderate [18]. In another study conducted on dental students in Romania, the impact of COIVD-19 was investigated, and findings demonstrated their emotional state being adversely affected [19]. Previously, health care students from the central region of KSA also reported fear and anxiety due to COVID-19 [20].…”