Knowledge level concerning COVID-19 in patients with dental emergencies

Introduction: knowledge concerning COVID-19 among patients with dental emergencies, it is of high importance since they can become infected and infect health care personnel. Objective: to describe the level of knowledge concerning COVID-19 in patients who were attended at the Clínica Estomatológica Provincial “Mártires del Moncada” in Santiago de Cuba. Method: a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted between March and June 2020. A total of 180 patients, in both sex and older than 18 and who gave their consent to be part of this research, were selected by a probability simple random sampling. Those with obvious acute respiratory syndrome were excluded. Age, sex, dental emergencies and knowledge level were assessed. The Chi-square test was used (alpha level of 0.05) to determine the association between knowledge Level, age, and sex. Results: odontalgia and acute dentoalveolar abscesses were the predominant dental conditions, and the level of knowledge concerning COVID-19 in patients with dental emergencies attended at the clinic was good. Conclusions: despite the good knowledge concerning COVID-19 showed by the patients affected with dental conditions, the lack of knowledge or non-compliance of measurements for the prevention and control of this infection may be the start point to spread the COVID-19 to the health personnel in service.