Assessing the Awareness on Occupational Health Hazards Among Dentists of Different Private Dental Clinics in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract

To determine if dentists in and around Dhaka are aware of certain workplace hazards and what precautions they take to avoid them. The current study was done with the help of a self-administered questionnaire that was distributed to 30 dentists in and around Dhaka. Personal information such as age, gender, position (student or faculty), years of experience, and number of working hours per day were also included in the questionnaire. Only those who thoroughly filled out the questionnaire form and were willing to participate were considered for the study. PSPP open source latest version was used to analyze the data. 30.0 percent of the participants had worked in the dental field for more than 10 years, while 26.7 percent of dentists worked for less than 8 hours. General practitioners made up 66.7 percent of the participants, and 43.3 percent of them see nearly 10 to 20 patients per day. In clinical practice, 40.0 percent of them had a needle stick injury. In our study, 0.0 percent of dentists reported to getting some form of litigation from their patients. The current study found that the occupational hazards, biological hazards awareness, and preventive actions observed by dentists in Dhaka are generally consistent with published infection control guidelines and previous studies. The bulk of the dental professionals were in pain in their neck or back muscles. Regular training and workshops can aid in the reduction of such issues.

Keywords: Dentists, Private Clinics, Health hazards.

DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/12-18-02

Publication date:September 30^th 2022