RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Noise levels encountered during the dental treatments in different departments have deleterious effects on the ears of dental healthcare providers and there is scarcity of data in the literature in Saudi Arabia. Hence, the aim of the study was to determine the noise levels resulting from the usage of different specialty instruments and equipment. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted to measure the level of noise produced by different specialty instruments and equipment within the dental clinics of the College of Dentistry, Riyadh Elm University (REU), Riyadh. The noise produced during the restorative treatments, endodontics and prosthodontics was recorded objectively using a decibel (dB) meter placed at a distance of 30 cm from the operator's ear. Mean noise levels were calculated and compared among the various specialty treatments using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Furthermore, Tukey's test was applied to perform a pairwise comparison between the groups. RESULTS: An overall noise of 73.83 ± 4.39 dB was found to be generated within the dental clinical setting. A highest sound level of 79.44 ± 2.10 dB was observed during restorative treatment followed by 74.14 ± 3.08, 73.22 ± 1.93, 71.39 ± 3.37 and 70.97 ± 4.70 dB for endodontic, periodontal, and prosthodontic treatments, respectively. A statistically significant difference was observed in the noise levels produced from the different specialty treatments (P = 0.000). CONCLUSION: The greatest noise level was recorded with the use of the amalgamator in restorative dental treatment. It was inferred that the noise emanating from all the specialty dental treatments was below the hazardous levels. Long-term exposure may, however, have adverse effects on auditory as well as general health.
RESUMO
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The parent's oral health knowledge has a great influence on their children, so the aim of the study was to estimate the parental knowledge about oral health care and its influence in maintaining the diet and hygiene practices on their children and also to access how the demographic variables will influence them in taking their child to dental visits. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The self-administered pretested questionnaire was distributed among Saudi parents whose children are in the age group of 2-6 years vising primary health care centers (PHCCs) in Riyadh city. The PHCCs were divided into five zones (Central, East, West, South, and North). 240-250 samples were randomly selected from each zone to reach the prescribed sample size of 1200. The survey will be composed of self-administered pretested questionnaires seeking for age, gender, educational level, and their financial status followed by 26 questions related to parent knowledge about oral health (14), dietary (5), and hygiene (7) practices what they implement on their child. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS software SPSS 25.0 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). RESULTS: Demographic information showed that the average age of the parents who participated in the study is 32.2 years. The mothers were 942 (75.7%) and fathers were 303 (24.3%) among the participants. The mean knowledge score among the mothers (34.85) is slightly greater than fathers (34.76). Similar results with dietary and hygiene practices were not statistically significant (>0.05). The parents having more than one child have better knowledge, of which the parents with more than three children have better scores, which is statistically significant. 69.3% of the parents prefer taking to a dentist only when they have a problem. Moreover, these findings found to be statistically significant (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Parents should get access to oral health knowledge to put in practice on their children so as to influence them in gaining better oral health.
