Effect of Equipment Used in Laboratory Environment on Dental Technicians' Hearing Threshold

Dentists and dental technicians are exposed to noise of various sound levels while working in dental offices or laboratories. The amount of noise that the dental practitioner is exposed to is over the limit of risk of hearing loss. The equipment used in laboratory environment emits characteristic noises that are potentially hazardous to the ear and may cause acoustic trauma. It also has some physiological and psychological undesirable effects on human beings. In this study, we evaluate the possibility of the hearing loss of 25 dental technicians working under these conditions. Their age ranged between 20-35. There are differences existing between the normal group and the technicians in the range of 125-8.000 Hz. hearing threshold. This difference is statistically significant (p<0.001).