Skip to main content
American Journal of Public Health logoLink to American Journal of Public Health
. 1980 Jun;70(6):633–635. doi: 10.2105/ajph.70.6.633

Hearing loss and the high speed dental handpiece.

H H Zubick, A T Tolentino, J Boffa
PMCID: PMC1619451  PMID: 6990802

Abstract

A pure tone air conduction audiometric evaluation was administered to 137 dentists and 80 physicians. The physicians were found to have better hearing threshold levels, notably in the 4000HZ center frequency range. The left ear of right handed dentists showed a greater loss of hearing ostensibly related to proximity to the noise source. Dental specialists showed a loss pattern similar to those of the general dentists. The findings suggest that there may be a cause and effect relationship between hearing loss and use of the highspeed dental handpiece.

Full text

PDF
633

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Peyton F. A. Status report on dental operating handpieces. Council on Dental Materials and Devices. J Am Dent Assoc. 1974 Nov;89(5):1162–1170. doi: 10.14219/jada.archive.1974.0542. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. TAYLOR W., PEARSON J., MAIR A. THE HEARING THRESHOLD LEVELS OF DENTAL PRACTITIONERS EXPOSED TO AIR TURBINE DRILL NOISE. Br Dent J. 1965 Mar 2;118:206–210. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Ward W. D., Holmberg C. J. Effects of high-speed drill noise and gunfire on dentists' hearing. J Am Dent Assoc. 1969 Dec;79(6):1383–1387. doi: 10.14219/jada.archive.1969.0031. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from American Journal of Public Health are provided here courtesy of American Public Health Association

RESOURCES