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 change of the acoustical environment in 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 works requiring the dental equipment operations. Sound quality assessments were conducted to assess the environmental changes in the a-weighted equivalent sound level (LAeq), total loudness (N), and sharpness (S) of 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 changes of the LAeq, N, and S were significantly higher in the DCP than that of the OSP. The degree of the professionals' perceptual influences of the dental equipment noise was positively correlated to the N of the environment. Furthermore, the perceptual influence of the noise was associated with the perceptual health quality of the dental professionals. The result 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.