Association between acid fumes in the work environment and dental erosion.

Abstract

TUOMINEN M, TUOMINEN R, RANTA K, RANTA H. Association between acid fumes in the work environment and dental erosion. Scand J Work Environ Health 1989;15:335-338. The effect of inorganic acid fumesfrom the work environmenton the erosionof teeth was studiedblindly. A sampleof 186workers was drawn from four factories. Among the 157dentulous participants, 76 were working in departments containing acid fumes, and 81 had never worked under such conditions and were used as referents. Of the acid workers 18.4 % had one or more teeth with erosion, and the corresponding figure for the referents was 8.6 %. With a longer duration of exposure the proportion of subjects with erosion increased. The acid workers had more teeth with erosion than the referents, especially upper anterior teeth. The findings suggest that even today exposure to inorganic acid fumes from the work environment may increase the erosion of teeth, especially the upper anterior teeth, which are not continuously protected by saliva and the lips.

The Effects of Household Corrosive Chemicals on Human Dentition*

“…The acid caused etching of the enamel, similar to that reported in the Romanov case (2). The teeth in this experiment also displayed the characteristic brown staining observed by Plunkett (21) and a glazed effect on the teeth of individuals in contact with sulfuric acid at workplaces (19). The current experiments did not manifest the distinguishably short, thin, and fragile teeth reported by Petersen and Gormsen (22).…”

Dental erosion and aspirin headache powders: A clinical report

“…Swimmers using chlorinated pools may present with tooth erosion, sometimes occurring in a unique erosion pattern in the mouth as a result of exposure of the facial surfaces of teeth on only one side when the swimmer takes a breath 18,19 . Even normal breathing can become a cause of dental erosion, if acid fumes are present in the workplace, as may be seen in battery factories and industrial situations 19–22 . This type of erosion may affect primarily the facial surface of the maxillary incisors, which are less protected from the acidic fumes in the air 20 .…”

Dental Erosion in Workers Exposed to Sulfuric Acid in Lead Storage Battery Manufacturing Facility

“…In earlier studies, the percentage of workers with dental erosion rose in proportion to work environmental sulfuric acid density, indicating the importance of monitoring sulfuric acid density in the air [8][9][10][11] . Few studies have investigated the relationship between dental erosion and sulfuric acid density in the air, indicating the usefulness of the present results.…”