Occupational Risks in Dentistry: Health and Safety Awareness Report

This report provides an overview of occupational hazards in the field of dentistry. It begins with an executive summary highlighting the focus on risks and preventive measures. The introduction emphasizes the significance of oral health, the impact of systemic diseases, and the importance of maintaining oral hygiene. The report justifies the study by pointing out the prevalence of oral health problems and the occupational risks faced by dental professionals, including infectious, psychological, and physical hazards like ionizing radiations and mercury exposure. The aim is to raise awareness about these risks and design preventive measures. The literature review covers various occupational risks, including infectious hazards, psychological stress, allergic reactions, and physical hazards. The report then discusses preventive measures, emphasizing the need for training, especially concerning OSHA standards. A project plan outlines factors such as cost, scope, time, quality, communication, risk, and resources. A Gantt chart is included for understanding the project timeline. The report also touches on leadership and change management models, including the trait theory, behavioral theory, and the great man theory, highlighting their importance in improving the health and safety of dental professionals.

R a i s i n g A w a r e n e s s O f T h e O c c u p a t i o n a l
R i s k s I n D e n t i s t r y T o H e l p I m p r o v e
H e a l t h A n d S a f e t y F o r T h e O r a l
H e a l t h c a r e A t W o r k

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• Report is focusing on the occupational hazards in the dentistry field and the preventive
measures are discussed in the report.
• Safety measures and oral health care facilities are discussed in the report. It would improve the
health of the people which are visiting the dentist.
• Occupational hazards like the infectious hazards and psychological hazards as well.

TABLE OF CONTENT
• EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• INTRODUCTION
• LR
• PROJECT PLAN
• GANTT CHART
• CONCLUSION
• OPPORTUNITIES FOR RESEARCH
• REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION
• Oral health is basically the state of remain free from various chronic mouth as well as facial
pain, throat cancer, oral infections, periodontal disease and numerous other diseases which
eventually limits the capacity of individual in biting, speaking, chewing etc.
• Oral healthcare has touched each and every aspect of the earth and has transformed the lives of
many individuals.
• The systematic diseases which affects overall body became apparent in the beginning due to
mouth lesions and other oral issues.
• No matter what the age is, maintaining the oral health remains highly important for everyone.
More than half of the population of UK enjoys the outstanding oral health and thus keeps their
teeth naturally alive throughout the lives. It is extremely essential to carry put oral hygiene on
the regular basis in order to prevent wide range of dental diseases.
• Most common kind of diseases related to dental are gum diseases as well as tooth decay
including periodontitis, gingivitis.

SIGNIFICANCE
• The major significance of studying the oral healthcare is to make dentists aware of the numerous
occupational risks and hazards and thus impart them knowledge about the prevention of these risks.
• The oral health problems has been a buzz in the market and have become one of the serious issue which has
transformed entire world drastically. Having a proper nutrition and the adequate treatment and preventive
measures of these oral diseases is more important than treating any other disorder like cancer as mouth is the
beginning of the body where food enters thus keeping it hygienic and safe is essential and vital.
• It has been indicated that teeth as well as gums are one of the main indicator of general health and thus
shows the potential problems that might occur to an individual. According to the report of WHO, more than
44% of the adults undergoes annual checkup and treatment but around 40% households avoid the visit to
dentist and or delay their visiting due to various reasons.
• As per Oral health and dental care, every year large number of people suffers from dental caries including
children and most of them remain exposed to some or the other form of bacterial infections which results in
tissue inflammation.

JUSTIFICATION
• The diseases and disorders related to the oral have become prevalent and thus have impacted the
entire world. The various occupational risks and threats which are being faced by dentist,
therapist, oral healthcare professionals have become a hot topic across the whole world as it has
lead to degradation of wide range of workers and dentists.
• The dentists come across the wide range of risks and hazards at their workplace which
eventually not only affects their physical health but also poses great impact on their mental
health. The major rationale behind choosing this topic is to make the dentists and oral healthcare
professionals aware about the various risks and hazards which they encounter and educating the
students studying dentistry regarding various risks which they might face at their workplace.
• Besides this, another main reason for studying this topic is to design various preventive measure
as well as diagnosis steps which the oral healthcare professionals should undertake while
treating patients or performing their work.

AIM AND OBJECTIVE
• Aim
• To raise the awareness about occupational risks and hazards in dentistry for improving health and safety
for oral healthcare professionals at work.
• Objectives
• The main objectives of this study are
• To identify the various occupational risks and hazards which dentists encounters at workplace and while
treating the patients
• To design various preventive measures for reducing or eliminating the occupational risks at workplace.
• To understand the role of health and safety in oral care and its significance for the oral healthcare
professionals.

LITERATURE REVIEW
• Occupational risks and hazards
• As per the view of Moodley, Naidoo and Van Wyk (2018), Dentistry is basically the branch in medical science which mainly
deals with the study, diagnosis as well as prevention of diseases, disorders which are related top the oral mucosa.
• Infectious hazards
• Dentist are generally involved in using a wide range of objects which are dangerous and thus can cause a bad impact on health.
• Psychological hazards
• Oral professionals not only undergoes through physical health problems but stress is one of the most important psychological
conditions which mainly occurs within dental profession.
• Allergic reactions
• Besides physical and mental hazards, dentist also come across wide range of allergic reactions that poses serious threat upon
their health.

CONTINUE..
• Physical hazards
• There are also some physical hazards which the dentists encounter while treating the patient or while performing other work.
• Ionizing radiations
• The profession of dentist is such that they have to utilize a wide range of radiation for treating the patients as most oral health problems requires
the exposure of some form of radiations.
• Mercury health hazards
• Mercury health hazards are affecting the health of people which are having the problems relating to the dentistry. High dose of mercury vapor
so it would lead to the biological and neurological issues.
• Non ionizing radiations
• In the treatment of dentistry, dentist are using the lasers on the large scale and it is affecting the health of the people on which doctors are using
the lasers.
• Use of anesthetic gases
• Anesthetic gases are also used in dental offices and these would also affect the health of the people which are visiting the place.

PREVENTIVE MEASURES
• As illustrated by Moodley, Naidoo and van Wyk (2018), The various health risks which oral professionals
comes across poses negative impact on their health and thus deteriorate their physical health. In order to treat
the patients, professionals also needs to be fit and fine thus improving the health and safety conditions for
dentists and thus reducing the wide range of risks which occurs at workplace becomes highly essential.
• As the dentists come across the wide range of threats and risks, it becomes important to take some measure that
will eventually lead to the improvement of workplace condition and thus will protect them from the various
occupational risks affecting their health. The most important part which is required for improving the condition
of dentist at workplace and for reducing the occupational risks is providing effective training to them.
• One of the most important standard which relates to their training and development is OSHA. Some of the
dentists generally remain aware of the use of various instruments like needles, Ionic radiations. Thus, in order
to manage this risk there, these dentists should be given effective training in an understandable form which will
help them to know the importance the various equipment and also will help them to understand how to use
these machines in order to avoid any accident.

PROJECT PLAN
• It is very important to have a project plan when there is a decision which has been take for the benefit for the organization
so that the company will be able to make a profit.
• There has to be an understanding of the factors such as cost, scope, time, quality, communication, risk and resources.
• The discussion on these factors are as follows.
• Cost
• Scope
• Time
• Quality
• Communication
• Risk
• Resources

CONT…
• Cost
• There is a limited cost which can be applied for the decisions and the betterment of the oral health care which the company is
going to provide to the customers.
• Scope
• The scope of this aware is huge in the market and can help a lot of people be aware of the problems which they were not aware
of in the past.
• Time
• The time duration for this aware program is not more than 10 days if the process is done properly and that is very important for
the company.
• Quality
• There are standards which all the company's have therefore it is very important for the oral health department also to keep up to
the standards for spreading this awareness in the market.