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BACKGROUND:Every profession has its own workplace related health risks. Dental practice is a profession in which the health care provider, whether dentist, assistant, hygienist or technician, is at multiple risks including exposure to hazardous chemicals, infections, pollution, posture related risks and stress related health issues. OBJECTIVE: The study aim is to identify work place related health hazards among dental technicians in Karachi. METHODOLOGY: A cross sectional study was conducted by administering a questionnaire to hundred and thirty two dental technicians selected from the laboratories of teaching hospitals and private dental laboratories in Karachi by visiting them at their laboratories. The data collected were analysed by using SPSS version 22. Percentages, mean and standard deviation were calculated. RESULTS:Among hundred and thirty two dental technicians, 75.8% were males with mean age was found to be 31.08 ± 8.29 years. The mean years of experience as a dental technician was 8.08 ±6.90 years. Working environment of both types of laboratories were found satisfactory with good ventilation, sufficient light and wide working space while safety precaution and infection control measures were not according to the measures recommended and only half of the participants were vaccinated. The most common work place related complaints found were factors causing stress (64%), systemic reactions (50.8%) and musculoskeletal problems in hand and neck (43.2%). Stress was found to be most common work place related hazard with contributing factors found were financial worries(57.6%), dealing with customers (56.1%) and time management (43.2%). Headache (33.3%) and pain (35.6%) were found to be the common work place related health hazards of general systemic reactions and musculoskeletal problems respectively. CONCLUSION:This study concluded that dental technicians suffered from work related problems like job related stress, headache, musculoskeletal problems, time management and dealing with patients. The working environment of both teaching hospitals and private dental laboratories was satisfactory while safety precautions and infection control measures adopted by the technicians were not according to the measures recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tooth wear depicts the non-carious loss of tooth tissue in three ways, which may occur individually or in combination. These are attrition, erosion and abrasion. Attrition depicts loss of tooth tissue by mastication or friction between occluding surface. Erosion however, is the loss of hard dental tissues by chemical processes and bacterial activity. Abrasion, on the other hand is pathological loss of tooth tissue from repetitive mechanical contact apart from tooth to tooth contact. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the frequency of tooth wear and its associated factors among patients attending out-patient department at Dow Dental College. The study enrolled 400 patients. A total of 24 teeth of each patient were scored between 0 and 4 according to the severity of tooth wear using tooth wear index. Factors associated with tooth wear were assessed and recorded using questionnaire. Out of 400 patients examined 182 (45%) were male and the overall mean age was 41 years (± 9). Only 10% participants had tooth wear in our study. It is concluded that tooth wear was found to be not common among patients presenting at the out-patient clinic of Dow Dental College. Factors like teeth grinding, jaws clenching, gastric reflux disease, use of Vitamin C supplements, carbonated drinks and citrus fruits were found to be related with tooth wear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In developing world, tobacco use among doctors and dentists is a major issue. The doctors and dentists are considered as advocates of health and responsible for providing guidance to the population. However, smoking among health professionals especially dentists has been linked with many oral health issues including gingivitis. Objective: To determine the association of tobacco use with gingivitis among dental students of Dow Dental College, Karachi, Pakistan. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 150 dental students of Dow Dental College, Karachi, Pakistan. Participants were asked to fill a self administered questionnaire containing questions regarding smoking habits, knowledge related to hazards of smoking and socio-demographic characteristics. The questions related to smoking were adopted from the National Adult Tobacco Survey (NATS) by Centre for Disease Control (CDC). The participants were examined for the presence of gingivitis using Gingival Index by the principal investigator. The examination was done with patient on dental chair in out-patient department of Dow Dental College. Results: The frequency of smoking was 92 (61%) among dental students of Dow Dental College. Similarly the frequency of smokeless tobacco use was present in 30 (20%) of individuals. The mean age of the students was 21.52 ±1.51 years. Mean age of initiation of smoking was 16.88 ± 4.01 years. Gingival index score was significantly higher among smokers 1.25± 0.91 as compared to non-smokers0.39 ± 0.63 (p-value<0.001) Conclusion: This study found high frequency of smoking among dental students and the gingival index score was higher among smokers as compared to non-smokers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The object of study was to appraise oral hygiene status of school-children of 6-years and 12-years in both public and private schools selected from nine different towns of Karachi city. An observational type of analytical cross sectional study of 1600 school-children, belonging 6 years and 12 years of age, were conducted among nine different towns of Karachi city. Sampling selection was based on cluster sampling technique. At the first stage, nine towns out of total eighteen towns were selected randomly. In the next stage, from each selected town one private and one public school were identified randomly. Selected sample of school-children were examined for plaque and gingivitis by using Loe and Silness plaque and gingival index. The overall plaque index score of the sample was found to be more than three fourth (n=1373, 85.8%) with the mean value of 1.18 (±0.73), indicating fair levels of plaque presence among school-children. Age wise plaque index scores were found to be statistically significant but gender wise statistically non-significant results were found (p≥0.53). The overall gingival index scores of school-children was found to be more than one fourth (n=445, 27.8%) with mean value of 0.43 (±0.77), reporting mild gingivitis among the study sample. Both age and gender wise mean gingival index was found to be statistically significant. Moreover, oral hygiene status (plaque and gingival index) were reported statistically significant among private and public school-children. This study suggests that more than half of the school-children had presence of dental plaque, whereas more than one third of them had mild gingivitis. This highlights the need for an unmet dental care services as well as community oriented health education and promotion in order to induce primary and primordial mode of prevention among school going children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]