ABSTRACT Objectives: To investigate the clinical dental students' knowledge on the proper dental setting during COVID-19 Methods: Using multicenter cross-sectional study, a 10-items questionnaire was distributed in April 2020 among senior dental students from two dental schools It comprised three main domains: demographic questions, questions investigating student's access to the proper recommendations of dental settings during COVID-19 and the specific recommendations questions Results: The questionnaire was sent to 654 clinical dental students and the total number of respondents were 267 representing a response rate of 40 83% The overall knowledge mean was low (1±0 92) Gender was not a statistically significant factor affecting the knowledge score (P &gt; 0 05) Most of the participants never visited the Saudi Center for Disease Prevention and Control (Saudi CDC) website and received no guidance or advice regarding proper dental practices during COVID-19 A statistically significant relationship was observed between the mean knowledge score and access to knowledge variables (P &lt; 0 05) Conclusion: It was noted that clinical dental students have low knowledge on the proper dental settings during COVID-19 pandemic that was recommended by the Saudi CDC guidelines and they must be equipped with adequate knowledge from reliable sources to overcome their insufficiencies such as a well-structured and dynamic curriculum
Clinical dental students' knowledge regarding proper dental settings for treating patient during COVID-19: A cross-sectional study