Dental professionals at risk of hearing loss, says new study
Education on the risk and methods to prevent it should be provided to staff and students.
Dental personnel are at a higher risk of developing occupational noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), according to a new study.
The scoping review identified 28 studies investigating hearing loss among dental professionals exposed to noisy equipment on a daily basis.
A total of 452 publications were identified through searches on PubMed and Web of Science.
The studies were screened on title and abstract for studies that investigated NIHL among dental professionals using objective or subjective parameters for hearing loss.
The remaining publications were then searched for relevant data, such as research type, parameters used for measuring hearing loss and authors’ conclusions.
Based on objective and subjective criteria for hearing loss, most studies reported a significant higher hearing loss among dental personnel.
The review said that education on the risk of hearing loss and methods to prevent it should be provided to dental staff and dental students.