Dental erosion, and specifically its symptoms, has long been studied in Japan as an occupational dental disease. However, in recent years, few studies have investigated the development of this disease or labor hygiene management aimed at its prevention. As a result, interest in dental erosion is comparatively low, even among dental professionals. Our investigation at a lead storage battery factory in 1991 found that the work environmental sulfuric acid density was above the tolerable range (1.0mg/m 3 ) and that longterm workers had dental erosion. Therefore, workers handling sulfuric acid were given an oral examination and rates of dental erosion by tooth type, rates of erosion by number of working years and rates of erosion by sulfuric acid density in the work environment investigated. Where dental erosion was diagnosed, degree of erosion was identified according to a diagnostic criterion. No development of dental erosion was detected in the maxillary teeth, and erosion was concentrated in the anterior mandibular teeth. Its prevalence was as high as 20%. Rates of dental erosion rose precipitously after 10 working years. The percentages of workers with dental erosion were 42.9% for 10-14 years, 57.1% for 15-19 years and 66.7% for over 20 years with 22.5% for total number of workers. The percentages of workers with dental erosion rose in proportion to work environmental sulfuric acid density: 17.9% at 0.5-1.0, 25.0% at 1.0-4.0 and 50.0% at 4.0-8.0mg/m 3 . This suggests that it is necessary to evaluate not only years of exposure to sulfuric acid but also sulfuric acid density in the air in factory workers.
To investigate dental erosion in employees working with sulfuric acid at a lead storage battery manufacturing plant and level of personal exposure to sulfuric ions, we measured sulfuric ion concentrations in the mouth rinse of those employees. We also measured exposure levels from air samples obtained from 2 employees from the same plant who did not work with sulfuric acid using a portable air sampler. At the same time, we collected and compared their mouth rinses with those from other employees. More specifically, we measured and compared sulfuric ion, calcium, and magnesium concentrations, along with pH levels from the mouth rinse of these two groups. Positive correlations were found between sulfuric ion and calcium concentrations (r,16.0ס pϽ0.005), calcium and magnesium concentrations (r,16.0ס pϽ0.005), Ca/Mg and calcium concentrations (r,46.0ס pϽ0.005), and sulfuric ion and magnesium concentrations (r,55.0ס pϽ0.005). Negative correlations were found between sulfuric ion concentrations and pH levels ,13.0מס(r pϽ0.01), and magnesium concentrations and pH levels ,23.0מס(r pϽ0.01). This suggests that mouth rinse from employees working with sulfuric acid could function as an indicator of sulfuric ion concentration in the work environment. Furthermore, this could lead to the development of a more accurate indicator of individual exposure.
The results of this study suggested that having students monitor video recordings of their own explorer skills may be an effective means of proper self-evaluation in specialized basic education using models.
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