Infection Control Practices Among Undergraduate Dental Students at Sebha University, Libya

Abstract

This study was conducted to find out how well undergraduate dental students at Sebha University followed advised infection control procedures. This cross-sectional study was performed among dental students at Sebha University. A self-administered anonymous questionnaire comprising 18 closed-ended questions has been distributed among 120 dental students in the period of 25 Sept through 30 December 2024. For analysis the data, descriptive statistical analysis and the chi-square test were applied using IBM SPSS Statistics version 17.0. Response rate was (91.6%). All participants reported that they wear gloves during dental procedures (100%), and the majority of them (90%) reported that they replace their hand instruments, burs, saliva ejectors, and handpieces between patients and disinfect prosthesis and impressions. A reduced rate of use was noted for recording patients' medical histories (83.6%), vaccinated against hepatitis B (70.9%), wearing face mask (87.3%), changing face mask (62%), wearing faces Hield (50%), wearing gown (68.2%), using rubber dam (79%) and storing sharp objects in containers (86.4%). Most of the examined infection control strategies were found to be followed by the majority of dental students at Sebha University. However, more education and training are required to enhance some infection control methods, such as recording patients' history, Hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination, donning facemasks, gowns, and face shields, and storing sharp objects in special containers.