Evaluation of access and attitudes of patients to dental treatments during COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction
The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restricted patients to reach healthcare personnel and postponed chronic diseases follow-ups.

Objective
Our study aimed to evaluate the dental treatment processes of patients and the effects of these processes on oral health from patient’ perspective.

Material and methods
A questionnaire consisting of COVID-19 and dental procedures was filled by patients applied to dental faculty. Data were evaluated using Pearson’s χ² test. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results
A total of 403 patients (248 females/155 males) participated in the present study. Toothache, abscess, and impacted tooth (27.8%) were the main reasons for the participants to apply to the hospital, followed by caries and filling (22.3%). Most of the participants (52.5%) did not hesitate to go to the dentist, but 60.8% of them postponed their treatment during the pandemic. More than half of the patients (56.1%) thought that dental procedures were risky in terms of COVID-19 transmission. The younger age group was less hesitant compared with the middle ages (p < 0.05). High school (65.7%) and university (58.7%) graduates believed that the risk of COVID-19 transmission from dental procedures was higher than in other groups (p < 0.05). Vaccinated individuals were statistically more hesitant of going to the dentist than those who were not vaccinated (p < 0.05).

Conclusions
The results of this study showed that toothache, abscess, and impacted tooth were the first reasons for applying to the dental hospital. Most of the patients stated that they hesitated to go to the dentist and postponed their treatments during the pandemic. Patients with higher education levels had a higher rate of vaccination.