Knowledge, awareness and practices of dental care waste management among private dental practitioners in Tricity (Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali)

Abstract

Objective:The objective of this study is to assess the awareness and practices of dental care waste management among private dental practitioners in Tricity (Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali).Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted in 100 private dental practitioners selected by simple random sampling using a close-ended questionnaire.Results:Amongst the total respondents 52% were males and 48% were females. Nearly 14% of the dental practitioners were not aware of the different categories of the waste generated in their clinics and 12% of the practitioners were not aware of the color coding used to dispose the waste. About 26% of them practiced wrong measures to dispose sharps and extracted tooth respectively. A majority 32% of Dentists did not disposed outdated and expired medicines properly.Conclusion:Majority of the dental practitioners was aware of categories and color coding used for disposal of different types of wastes yet they do not follow the same in their practice. Hence, strict prosecution laws should also be imposed under biomedical waste management act for the Dentists so that it should be implemented in daily practice.

Knowledge, Awareness, and Practices Regarding Biomedical Waste Management Among Undergraduate Dental Students

“…Thus, the majority of the students in this study did not practice proper dental waste segregation and disposal methods, although intern students exhibited better practices compared to final year and 3 rd year students. Although most of our dental students were aware of the hazardous effect of improper disposal, a large proportion of them did not practice proper methods of BMW disposal, which is similar to the studies by Bansal et al [7], Sanjeev et al [8], Manchanda et al [11], and Bangennavar et al [12].…”

“…This shows that our study participants have excellent knowledge and practices regarding discarding needles. This was much higher than the results observed by Mathur et al [9], Bansal et al [7], and Chudasama et al [10] where only around 65.3%, 58%, and 63.1% used to dispose sharps in puncture-proof containers. Whereas only 41.7% and 26.4% of study participants disposed needles in puncture proof containers according to the study by Manchanda et al [11] and Charania and Ingle [5], respectively.…”

“…In contrary, a higher proportion of dentists (88%) were aware about the color coding system according to the study by Bansal et al [7]. In our study, the majority of students had a good level of knowledge and awareness regarding BMW management.…”

“…This is much higher than what was About 86% of students in our study knew about the categories of dental waste materials generated in the clinics, which is similar to the study by reported by Sanjeev et al [8] (96.6%), Chudasama et al [10] (96.5%), Manchanda et al [11] (90%), and Mathur et al [9] (81.3%). However, in the study by Bansal et al [7], only 76% of the dentists segregated different wastes according to the laws of BMW management.…”

“…This is in agreement with the study conducted by Charania and Ingle [5], in which 72% of dentists knew about the BMW management and handling laws in India, and both these studies were conducted in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. [7] in which 89%, 85%, and 86% of dental practitioners, respectively, were aware of the BMW categories. 79% of our students were aware of the methods of segregating and disposing extracted tooth and the cotton soaked in saliva and blood.…”