Alterations in isolation, infection control, and personal protective equipment during the transition from pandemic to endemic in endodontic practice: A cross-sectional study

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the alterations in isolation, infection control, and personal protective equipment (PPE) by endodontists and pregraduate endodontic students in Türkiye before and after pandemic.
Methods: The survey consisted of 25 questions with three parts. The first part consisted of demographic questions, and second part was about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) knowledge. Participants were asked using third part, rubber dam (RD) use and which PPE before and after the pandemic.
Results: There was no significant relationship between the participants’ general knowledge of COVID-19 (p > 0.05). While the use of N95/FFP2 masks by participants was 8.7% before the pandemic, this rate of use increased significantly to 92% after the pandemic (p < 0.05). It was concluded that if the pandemic becomes endemic, participants will continue to use N95/FFP2 masks to a large extent (71%). When the frequency of use of RD was compared before and after the pandemic, a significant difference was found (p < 0.05). In addition, the majority of participants (89.1%) stated that they are considering adding RD to their routine endodontic treatment procedures even when the pandemic becomes endemic.
Conclusion: Endodontic treatments with RD and PPE increased with pandemic. When the pandemic becomes endemic, these usage habits are likely to persist to a large extent.