Hearing loss and the high speed dental handpiece.

Abstract

RNs in the most neutral way, and themselves in between at all three stages. This finding tended to become even more pronounced over time. The two characteristics which emerge as most intense for all three occupations at all stages of the study are intelligence and competence. These findings suggest that the PA holds a positive image of the medical team members with whom he interacts. The attitude noted indicates that continued effective team work is highly probable and not likely to detract from the quality of service rendered. It should be kept in mind, however, that the nature of this research has been preliminary, and long-term conclusions must await further study. Abstract: A pure tone air conduction audiometric evaluation was administered to 137 dentists and 80 physicians. The physicians were found to have better hearing threshold levels, notably in the 4000Hz center frequency range. The left ear of right handed dentists showed a greater loss of hearing ostensibly related to proximity to the noise source. Dental specialists showed a loss pattern similar to those of the general dentists. The findings suggest that there may be a cause and effect relationship between hearing loss and use of the highspeed dental handpiece. (Am J Public Health 70:633-635, 1980.) Ever since the development and use of the air driven high speed dental handpiece some 25 years ago, concern has been expressed and reported in the literature of a possible cause and effect relationship between use of the drill and loss of hearing in dentists. Previous studies have noted the existence of complaints of tinnitus, and a few have shown some minimal degree of high frequency sensorineural loss, dis-

General dental practitioners and hearing impairment

“…[14][15][16][17] Another study compared the hearing status of Finnish dentists aged 33-42 years in 1973 and in 1988 and found that, even though the noise produced by turbines in 1973 was louder by 5-8.5 dB, the hearing thresholds were similar. 54 Thus, it seems there is a discrepancy between the continuing evolution and improvement of dental equipment, especially dental turbines [19][20][21][22] and progressive deterioration of hearing status in dental healthcare workers.…”

“…[11][12][13] However in almost all previous studies dentists did not experience higher HI risk than the general population. [14][15][16][17][18] This success was probably due to the technological improvement of dental equipment which considerably reduced the degree of environmental noise. [19][20][21][22] Nowadays, the noise levels generated by suction tubes, turbines, ultrasonic j o u r n a l o f d e n t i s t r y 4 0 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 8 2 1 -8 2 8 a r t i c l e i n f o Article history:…”

Acoustic Noise Levels of Dental Equipments and Its Association with Fear and Annoyance Levels Among Patients Attending Different Dental Clinic Setups in Jaipur, India

“…Even though, the exposure time of patients to noise in the dental clinic is limited to the treatment time, and may not lead to induced hearing losses, there are indications that dental anxiety, related to fear is aroused by dental equipment/instruments, tend to be a source of patient discomfort [2,3]. The sources of dental sounds that can pose as a potential hazard to hearing system of dentists and patients include high-speed turbine hand pieces, low-speed hand pieces, high-velocity suction, ultrasonic instruments and cleaners, vibrators, mixing devices such as amalgamators and model trimmers [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has reported the daily permissible noise level of 85 decibels for 8 hours of continual exposure [14].…”

Hearing Threshold of Dental Practitioners in Various Clinical Settings

“…On the other hand, the audiogram of dentists in Saudi Arabia revealed that a significant number of dentists have a drop in the 4000 Hz audiogram frequency and 16.6% of dentists have tinnitus, 14.7% have difficulty in speech discrimination, 64% have difficulty in speech discrimination combined in a background noise (11). Pure tone audiometric evaluation among 80 physicians and 137 dentists revealed that dentists have a greater loss of hearing compared to physicians (12). Prevalence of hearing impairment among general dental practitioner and general medical practitioner in Italy is 30% and 14.8% respectively (13).…”