We are excited to have you join us for an amazing educational line up, check out the agenda below for the 2025 Conference. Please note that this agenda is subject to change.
This project was funded in part by an NHCA Scholarship Foundation Student Research Award
Hazardous noise exposure is an important health concern in many workplaces and is one of the most common work-related injuries in the United States. Dental professionals are frequently exposed to high levels of occupational noise in their daily work environment. This noise is generated by various dental handpieces such as drills, suctions, and ultrasonic scalers. Prolonged exposure to such noise levels is known to have adverse effects on hearing health. Despite the prevalence of occupational noise in dentistry, there is a paucity of comprehensive research specifically addressing the noise intensity of dental handpieces and examining the prevalence of hearing loss and tinnitus in dental professionals. First, noise levels were measured from different dental handpieces and evacuation systems in a typical clinic setting. To evaluate the prevalence of hearing loss and tinnitus, data were collected from 60 dental professionals including participant demographics and audiometric thresholds. Results showed that 15-25% of males and 13-18% of females had hearing loss that exceeded 95 th percentile limits based on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) normative age-distributions. Tinnitus was reported in 40% of the participants. This study is the first to offer a comprehensive characterization of auditory thresholds in dental professionals with comparisons to the ISO normative age-distributions for males and females.
