Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a psychological effect on the general population and healthcare workers. Dentists were not excluded from this and were placed in a high-exposure risk category for infection. This cross-sectional study used the DASS-21 scale to evaluate the level of depression, anxiety, and stress among dental students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of other variables on their responses. Continuous variables were expressed as mean +/- standard deviation, and categorical variables were expressed as percentages. The student's t-test and one-way ANOVA were used for continuous variables. Multiple linear regressions were also utilized. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. A total of 138 students contributed to the study. All participants (100%) were female, and 99.28% were single. The majority of the students were enrolled at King Saud University (81.88%), with 42.75% of the participants in the third year. High levels of depression, anxiety, and stress were reported among dental students during the pandemic: 73.2% of respondents had depression, 84.8% had anxiety, and 75.4% had stress. In addition to the stress of dental education itself, the contagious nature of this disease and those dentists were at a higher risk of contracting the infection affected the student's psychological health.