Evidence summary: can plastics used in dentistry act as an environmental pollutant? Can we avoid the use of plastics in dental practice?

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Dental health care waste disposal among private dental practices in Bangalore City, India.

J Chandrashekar, Digumarthi Sudhakar (2008)

Any waste generated consequent to health care activity including any from a home environment is health care waste. Dental practices generate large amounts of waste cotton, plastic, latex, glass and other materials much of which may be contaminated with body fluids. To assess the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of private dental practitioners on health care waste management in Bangalore City. A cross-sectional study of 432 private dental practitioners in Bangalore City using a self-administered questionnaire. 389 dentists responded; 64.3% do not segregate waste before disposal and 47.6% hand over health care waste to street garbage collectors; 42.1% felt that there was a lack of waste management agency services and 16.9% felt that a lack of knowledge were the main hurdles. Dentists need education regarding health care waste disposal methods to improve their knowledge. A large proportion of the dentists are not practising proper methods of health care waste disposal. The existence of legislation governing healthcare waste disposal is not sufficient alone to motivate many practitioners to comply with guidelines.

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Assessment of dental waste management in a Nigerian tertiary hospital.

Michael Adedigba, Solomon O Nwhator, Abel Afon … (2010)

This study assessed the practice of disposing of waste from the eight dental clinics of Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Complex, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. All the cleaners (14) in the hospitals were surveyed through questionnaire. Information obtained from the cleaners included socio-economic characteristics (biodata), personal protection, facilities available for them to work with and job satisfaction. Two soil samples were obtained from the open dump site (0.15 and 0.30 m depth) and two water samples were also collected (at 0.00 and 50.00 m) within the vicinity of the dump site. Both the soil and water samples were taken to the central science laboratory for chemical analyses. Ten (71.4%) of the 14 cleaners were not satisfied with their job. The laboratory findings suggested a very high content of lead, chromium, mercury, cadmium and manganese in both soil and water samples in comparison with the Nigerian Federal Environmental Protection Agency standards. The study concludes that the use of tooth-coloured restorative materials and digital X-ray facility to serve as alternatives to the generation of these wastes is recommended and that farming activities should not be allowed in the area until an audit of the soil and water have been performed.