Abstract
Background. Dentists are at risk of developing hand eczema, as are most people who work in the health care field.
Objectives. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of hand eczema and allergies among a sample of Lebanese dentists to understand their probable causes and propose solutions to reduce their occurrence.
Material and methods. A total of 314 Lebanese dentists, who practiced different specialties of dentistry, after giving verbal consent, completed an anonymous questionnaire that focused on occupational diseases. This study was approved by the ethics committee of Saint-Joseph University (USJ) of Beirut, Lebanon. The statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software for Windows. The alpha error was set to 0.05.
Results. The mean age of the participants was 39.2 (+/- 11.66) years (58.6% male). The results showed that 15.3% (n = 48) of the surveyed dentists developed allergies to latex gloves, 2.5% (n = 8) developed allergies to resins, and 3.8% (n = 12) developed allergies to glutaraldehyde.
Conclusions. This study showed that a large number of Lebanese dentists suffer from hand eczema. It is important to note that not all skin reactions are related to gloves or natural rubber latex. Dentists should be aware of hand eczema symptoms, the common allergens contained in dental materials, the prevention and the appropriate treatment of occupational skin diseases.