The impact of COVID-19 on dental education in Tunisia.

Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic might have an unprecedented impact on dental education.

Aim: The main aim of this study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 among Tunisian dental students.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out from January to March 2022, at the Faculty of Dental Medicine of Monastir (FDMM), Tunisia. The population consisted of the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th year dental students registered for the academic year 2021/2022 at the FDMM. The potential number of participants was 881 according to the administration of the faculty. The applied questionnaire was made of 17 questions adapted to the Tunisian context. Incomplete answers were considered as exclusion criteria.

Results: A total of 446 students responded to the online survey giving an overall response rate of 50.6%. The study revealed that the FDMM was not doing its best to solve the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic for 88.8% of the responders. Dental students were concerned about the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on their dental education (69.6%) especially about graduating on time (63.0%) since changes made in dental medicine education due to the pandemic were stressful for 61.1% of them. The students reached emotional support from their family and friends (46.5%) whereas only 9.8% of them requested assistance from faculty's staff.

Conclusion: This study provides information about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on dental education. These findings may sensitize officials in the FDMM to take measures in order to deliver better education to dental medicine students.