Aishah Aijaz1 BDS, MPH Asghar Ali Shigri2 BDS, MPH Saima Asim3 BDS, MPH Muhammad Hassan4 BDS Syed Muhammad Zulfiqar Hyder Naqvi5 MBBS, MSBH Shikoh Naz6 B DS, MPH
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
HOW TO CITE: Aijaz A, Shigri AA, Asim S, Hassan M, Naqvi SMZH, Naz S. Factors affecting awareness of infection control
measures among dental practitioners of Karachi. J Pak Dent Assoc 2022;31(3):141-146.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25301/JPDA.313.141
Received: 12 January 2021, Accepted: 01 May 2022
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