- ORTHODONTICS
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25241/stomaeduj.2021.8(4).art.4
Abstract
Design Multidisciplinary survey conducted via a web-based questionnaire for orthodontic postgraduate students.
Settings Orthodontic residents from 9 countries were surveyed between April and May 2021. The majority was from Romania 52.53% (n=83), Turkey 21.52% (n=34), Croatia 6.33 (n=10) and less than 5% of participants from the other countries with Bulgaria 4.43% (n=7), Republic of Moldova 4.43% (n=7), Greece 3.80% (n=6), Bosnia and Herzegovina 3.16%(n=5), North Macedonia 1.90% (n=3) and Serbia 1.90% (n=3).
Results The questionnaire was completed by 158 orthodontic postgraduate students from the Balkan countries, of which 75.95% (n=120) were females and 24.05% (n=38) were males. The average age group of the respondents was between 25-34 years (84.81% [n=134] of the participants), while there was a significant difference (p<0.05) with students from Romania with 2.3 times more females from Turkey with 2.4 times more males in comparison to other countries. A higher number of the participants 37.34% (n=59) were working in both the private and public sectors. Most of the orthodontic residents were mostly in their 2nd year of studies 72.78% (n=115). The majority of the postgraduate students (n=93, 58.86%) altered their plans and service delivery following the instructions of their institutions. The impact of coronavirus was evident, since a decrease in outpatient visits before and after the pandemic was evident, (from 15 patients to 12 patients respectively per day), with an average of 6 working hours under current circumstances.
Conclusions In this first international survey for orthodontic residents, widespread changes in the orthodontic education programs during the outbreak of COVID-19 are reported.
Keywords
COVID-19; Pandemic; Orthodontic Residency; Service Delivery; Orthodontics.