What's the risk of dentists losing their hearing?

ABSTRACT Hearing loss and its association with occupational noise exposure among Saudi dentists: a cross-sectional study MAIN BDJOpen 

2016;10.1038/bdjopen.2016.6,http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2016.6 The dental clinic can be a stressful environment for a multitude of factors: patients may arrive late leading to delays,

dealing with complaints, equipment may not be working, not to mention having to constantly be aware of occupational hazards such as needle stick injuries which can lead to serious

complications. But there is one additional element that is often not taken into account by dentists and that is the possibility of hearing loss as a result of the constant exposure to high

frequency sounds, from high speed turbines, ultrasonic scalers to other sources like high velocity suction. In this study Alabdulwahhab _et al_. aimed to determine whether the persistent

high frequency sounds produced by the dental equipment could cause hearing decrement among Saudi dental practitioners. Credit: ©leschnyhan/iStock/Getty The authors carried out a cross

sectional study of 38 randomly selected Saudi dentists who had been practising dentistry for more than 5 years from various specialities and 38 individuals as a control group. The

participants were subjected to four audiometric tests which included: an otoscopic examination, tympanometry (an examination used to test the condition of the middle ear and mobility of the

eardrum and the conduction bones), pure tone audiometry and the distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) test (to determine cochlear status, specifically hair cell function). Their

results revealed that 15.8% of the dentists and 2.6% of the control group had some hearing loss. No significant difference was found between the two groups in the pure tone audiometry test;

however, qualitative analysis revealed a higher percentage of hearing loss among the dentists' group as compared with their control counterparts. Evidence suggests that noise from

dental clinics can cause hearing problems, which had a greater effect on the left ear than the right; however, these problems are not severe in nature. To decrease the risk of developing

noise induced hearing loss dentists are encouraged to implement preventive measures for noise reduction in areas such as: optimum maintenance of rotary equipment, reduction of the ambient

noise level in the clinic and personal protection through the use of ear plugs. Dentists are also advised to undertake regular annual audiometry check-ups which can help to identify those

who are showing the preliminary signs of hearing loss before they develop significant auditory impairments. BY RUSSELL HASHEMI PLYMOUTH UNIVERSITY SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE AND DENTISTRY,

WWW.THESMILINGTOOTH.COM RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE What's the risk of dentists losing their hearing?. _Br Dent J_ 221, 712

(2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2016.906 Download citation * Published: 09 December 2016 * Issue Date: 09 December 2016 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2016.906 SHARE THIS

ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Copy to clipboard

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative