JAMA · 1988 · 84 citations · 12 references
DentistryDental HygieneInfection PreventionPatient SafetyPediatric Dental HygieneOral HygieneSusceptibility To InfectionAllied Health ProfessionalsHiv Risk PerceptionHuman Immunodeficiency Virus Transmission
ACQUIRED immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a frightening disease. Recent studies of dental professionals, physicians, and nurses have documented that fear is a basic and persistent reaction to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic. We have found, for example, that among a sample of dental providers in California, 81% of dentists and dental hygienists and 86% of dental assistants believed they would be at increased risk for infection if they treated people with AIDS.<sup>1,2</sup>Physicians who worry about AIDS have reported increased stress. In one study, 40% of medical house officers and 24% of pediatric house officers said their levels of stress had risen either moderately or extremely because they were concerned about getting AIDS.<sup>3</sup>More than half of the nurses in one study (59%) believed that AIDS could be transmitted to hospital personnel despite infection control precautions.<sup>4</sup>These studies and others show that getting AIDS from a
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