Perception of Patients towards dental treatment during COVID-19

This study identifies different factors influencing the patient’s decision to receive dental treatments during the ongo-ing pandemic and identifies their expectations at the dental office during Covid-19. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 306 people in a dental institute. A questionnaire was used to collect primary demographic data. It consisted of questions concerning patient attitude regarding the utilization of dental services and expectations from the dental setup during the pandemic. The chi-square test was used to analyze the association between variables with a significance level set at p≤0.05. The mean age of the study population was 37±5.3 years, with the majority being males (52%). Many female patients (60.76%) and those from the lower middle class (38.59%) were appre-hensive about getting the disease during their visit. Covid19 was not considered a threat among adoles-cents/middle-aged (47.27%) and upper lower-class patients (41.81%). Spending extra during this period was ac-ceptable by 65.7% of patients, though a few (16.3%) responded or felt that the hospital should be considerate and bear the expenses. They (38.9%) had no specific complaints about the cleanliness issue of the hospital premises. All the above results were significant statistically (p≤0.05). Though apprehension of contracting the disease was observed among many patients, their dental problems were considered a priority, influencing their visit to the dental hospital