Impact of Fear of COVID-19, Depression, Anxiety and Stress on Temporomandibular Disorders in Peruvian Dental Students in the Post-Pandemic Period: A Multivariable Regression Analysis

Background: Dentists, who frequently encounter potentially infected patients, have experienced significant changes worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the fear of COVID-19, depression, anxiety and stress on the presence of temporomandibular disorders (TMD), taking into account possible confounding variables, in Peruvian dental students during the post-pandemic period. Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study assessed 607 Peruvian dental students from two regions of Peru. The study utilized the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21), the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) and the Short Form of the Fonseca Anamnestic Index (SFAI). Possible confounding variables were sex, age, year of study, marital status, place of origin, area of residence, history of mental illness and living with people vulnerable to COVID-19. For the multivariable analysis, we utilized a Poisson regression model with an adjusted robust variance. The significance level was set at p 0.05). Conclusions: Almost half of the dental students experienced depression, anxiety and TMD in the post-pandemic period. In addition, depression and anxiety were influential factors in the occurrence of TMDs, with the female gender being a risk factor. However, factors such as fear of COVID-19, stress, age, year of study, marital status, place of origin, area of residence, history of mental illness or living with people vulnerable to COVID-19 were not significant.