V Sudhakar1, Janakiram Chandrashekar. 1. Department of Community Dentistry, St Joseph Dental College, Eluru, Andhrapradesh, India. dr_vsk@yahoo.co.in
Abstract
UNLABELLED: Any waste generated consequent to health care activity including any from a home environment is health care waste. Dental practices generate large amounts of waste cotton, plastic, latex, glass and other materials much of which may be contaminated with body fluids. OBJECTIVE: To assess the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of private dental practitioners on health care waste management in Bangalore City. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 432 private dental practitioners in Bangalore City using a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: 389 dentists responded; 64.3% do not segregate waste before disposal and 47.6% hand over health care waste to street garbage collectors; 42.1% felt that there was a lack of waste management agency services and 16.9% felt that a lack of knowledge were the main hurdles. CONCLUSIONS: Dentists need education regarding health care waste disposal methods to improve their knowledge. A large proportion of the dentists are not practising proper methods of health care waste disposal. The existence of legislation governing healthcare waste disposal is not sufficient alone to motivate many practitioners to comply with guidelines.
UNLABELLED: Any waste generated consequent to health care activity including any from a home environment is health care waste. Dental practices generate large amounts of waste cotton, plastic, latex, glass and other materials much of which may be contaminated with body fluids. OBJECTIVE: To assess the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of private dental practitioners on health care waste management in Bangalore City. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 432 private dental practitioners in Bangalore City using a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: 389 dentists responded; 64.3% do not segregate waste before disposal and 47.6% hand over health care waste to street garbage collectors; 42.1% felt that there was a lack of waste management agency services and 16.9% felt that a lack of knowledge were the main hurdles. CONCLUSIONS: Dentists need education regarding health care waste disposal methods to improve their knowledge. A large proportion of the dentists are not practising proper methods of health care waste disposal. The existence of legislation governing healthcare waste disposal is not sufficient alone to motivate many practitioners to comply with guidelines.
Authors: Raghuwar D Singh; Sunit K Jurel; Shuchi Tripathi; Kaushal K Agrawal; Reema Kumari Journal: Biomed Res Int Date: 2014-08-04 Impact factor: 3.411
Authors: Nadia Jamil; Mujtaba Baqar; Samar Ilyas; Abdul Qadir; Muhammad Arslan; Muhammad Salman; Naveed Ahsan; Hina Zahid Journal: Biomed Res Int Date: 2016-06-30 Impact factor: 3.411