Factors Affecting Awareness of Infection Control Measures among Dental Practitioners of Karachi

OBJECTIVES: To determine the factors affecting awareness of infection control measures among dental practitioners working in universities and teaching hospitals of Karachi. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was conducted from May 2017 to January 2018 among 190 conveniently sampled practitioners from four dental clinics of tertiary care hospitals of Karachi. The study population consisted of dental practitioners that included graduates and post graduates of either gender with an experience of two years and above while practitioners refusing to give written informed consent were excluded from the study. The questionnaires were distributed and collected on same day by the principal investigator. All the collected data were analyzed on Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20. RESULTS: A majority of dental practitioners (>90%) were aware that contact with blood may transmit pathogenic microorganisms; goal of infection control is to eliminate the transfer of microorganisms; steam autoclave sterilizes by using steam under pressure; disinfection of dental chair, clinic, and dental office; wearing gloves, face masks and having protective eye wear on while checking patients; changing gloves, extraction instrument, saliva ejectors and burs in operative dentistry after checking each patient is necessary for a dental practitioner. Moreover, the awareness scores of dental practitioners were found to be significantly different across categories of experience (p=0.008). CONCLUSION: A majority of dental practitioners was aware about most measures of infection control. Further confirmation of study results by studies with larger sample sizes is recommended. KEYWORDS: Risk Factors, Awareness, Infection Control, Dentists