Negative effects of dental equipment noise on dental professionals' health quality

Abstract

Dental equipment noise is generally recognized as a major noise source in dental environment. Dental professionals unavoidably suffer the noise from different equipment operations and other noise sources in their daily work. The aims of this study were to assess the differences in the acoustical environment between different regular dental procedures, and to analyse the negative effects of noise on dental professionals' health quality. Oral surgery provisions (OSP) and dental casting preparations (DCP) are the dental procedures requiring the dental equipment operations. Sound quality assessments were conducted to assess the environmental changes in the A-weighted sound level (LA), total loudness (N), and sharpness (S) of the noise during the equipment operations. After that, the questionnaire surveys were conducted to assesses the perceptual influence of the noise on the surrounding dental professionals in the Prince Philip Dental Hospital of Hong Kong. The 5%-percentile values of LA, N, and S were significantly higher in the DCP than that of the OSP. Moreover, the degree of the professionals' perceptions of the influences from the dental equipment noise, health, satisfaction, indoor environmental quality (IEQ) condition were significantly higher in the DCP than that of the OSP. Furthermore, the degree of the professionals' perceptual influences from the noise sources, satisfaction, IEQ and hearing conditions were positively correlated to the change of loudness (N_5 and N_diff) in the environment. The results showed that the acoustical environment was significantly affected by the dental equipment applications and raised our attention on the designs of the noise precaution works for the dental professionals who suffer the occupational noise exposure from the dental equipment operations