Noise Disturbance and Potential Hearing Loss Due to Exposure of Dental Equipment in Flemish Dentists

Long-term exposure to occupational noise is often associated with noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) among dentists. This study aims to investigate potential hearing loss (HL) and self-reported annoyance as a result of exposure to noise produced by contemporary dental equipment. Methods: Three cohorts participated: 53 dentists with more than 5 years of service, 47 dentists with at most 5 years of service, and 53 pharmacists as controls, age and gender-matched to the first group. After the exclusion of one person, the hearing of 304 ears was screened with the Flemish version of the digit triplet... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Michael Dierickx
Suzanne Verschraegen
Els Wierinck
Guy Willems
Astrid van Wieringen
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
Reihe/Periodikum: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol 18, Iss 5617, p 5617 (2021)
Verlag/Hrsg.: MDPI AG
Schlagwörter: occupational noise / digit triplet test / pure tone audiometry / noise-induced hearing loss / dentistry / Medicine / R
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29060402
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115617

Long-term exposure to occupational noise is often associated with noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) among dentists. This study aims to investigate potential hearing loss (HL) and self-reported annoyance as a result of exposure to noise produced by contemporary dental equipment. Methods: Three cohorts participated: 53 dentists with more than 5 years of service, 47 dentists with at most 5 years of service, and 53 pharmacists as controls, age and gender-matched to the first group. After the exclusion of one person, the hearing of 304 ears was screened with the Flemish version of the digit triplet in noise test (DTT). If screening failed, otoscopy and pure tone audiometry (PTA) were performed for both ears. Furthermore, general information, knowledge, exposure, annoyance, general health, and preventive measures were assessed with a custom-made questionnaire. Results: NIHL did not occur significantly more often with dentists than with controls. However, dentists revealed a significantly higher annoyance (related to the noise from their equipment) and reported more complaints than the pharmacists. All three groups indicated lack of knowledge on hearing care. Conclusions: While noise levels in contemporary dentistry are not harmful and do not induce NIHL, the sounds emitted by the devices are disturbing and affect mental health. This study calls for increased awareness of the consequences of sound exposure and stresses the need to monitor and protect the hearing of dentists regularly.