Abstract:

Aim: Our study aimed to examine the fear of coronavirus, depression, anxiety and stress levels (along with their associated factors); in dentists who continued to work in close contact with their patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This research, which uses a descriptive and cross-sectional design, includes dentists who are actively working during the COVID-19 pandemic and volunteer to participate in the study. Due to pandemic, 376 dentists, who were included in the study by convenience sampling, participated remotely via an online survey. A Sociodemographic Information Form, The Fear of COVID-19 Scale and The Depression Anxiety Stress-21 Scale (DASS-21) were used. Results: 226 (60.1%) of the participants had fear of contamination and death during the pandemic. Fear of Covid-19, DASS-21 scales and DASS total score were found to be significantly higher in the female group(p<0.001). It was observed that the depression, anxiety, stress and the DASS total scale scores of the dentists who did not have children were significantly higher than the dentists who have children (p<0.001). The fear of COVID-19 and stress scale scores of dentists who started to work with shifts were also significantly higher than the average of those who continued to work with the same working order as before the pandemic (p<0.05). The depression, stress and DASS total scores of the dentists assigned to the COVID-19 contact tracing were significantly higher than the dentists who continued to work with the same working order as before the pandemic (p<0.05). Conclusion: According to our findings; it was concluded that the presence of psychiatric disorder history in dentists was an explanatory factor on depression, anxiety and stress. Therefore, it is important to follow up dentists with a history of psychiatric disorder more closely and provide psychological support to them.

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