EFFECT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON CLINICAL SKILLS OF DENTAL STUDENTS AT KING SAUD UNIVERSITY

Numerous measures have been established to guarantee that human-to-human contact is kept to a minimum during the pandemic. There is significant emphasis on the role of screening and triaging patients before initiating any dental operations. Personal protection equipment (PPE) kits, facemasks, ideally N-95, and face shields are recommended for dentists. A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted among undergraduate students consisting of 4 different groups representing different undergrad batches and their respective undergrad year clinical performance. Graduates were in the control group since this group graduated without the COVID-19 precautions affecting their clinical performance whilst being the control for interns. We asked a student who studied in the 5th year both during and without the precautions about their clinical performance. And we noticed no significant difference in simple cases (S, S+). However, there was a significant difference in one of the criteria of advanced cases (M, M+, M++) where (M) signifies the least complex form of the advanced cases and (M++) signifies the most complex, based on the number of specialties involved and the severity of the case. The clinical performance of King Saud University undergraduate dental students who studied precautions against COVID-19 was affected when compared to students who did not study during these precautions.