Oral health status of workers exposed to acid fumes in phosphate and battery industries in Jordan

Objectives: To investigate the prevalence and nature of oral health problems among workers exposed to acid fumes in two industries in Jordan. Setting: Jordan's Phosphate Mining Company and a main private battery factory. Design: Comparison of general and oral health conditions between workers exposed to acid fumes and control group from the same workplace. Subjects and methods: The sample consisted of 68 subjects from the phosphate industry (37 acid workers and 31 controls) drawn as a sample of convenience and 39 subjects from a battery factory (24 acid workers and 15 controls). Structured questionnaires on medical and dental histories were completed by interview. Clinical examinations were carried out to assess dental erosion, oral hygiene, and gingival health using the appropriate indices. Data were statistically analysed using Wilcoxon rank-sum test to assess the significance of differences between results attained by acid workers and control groups for the investigated parameters. Results: Differences in the erosion scores between acid workers in both industries and their controls were highly significant (P <0.05). In both industries, acid workers showed significantly higher oral hygiene scores, obtained by adding the debris and calculus scores, and gingival index scores than their controls (P <0.05). The single most common complaint was tooth hypersensitivity (80%) followed by dry mouth (77%) on average. Conclusion: Exposure to acid fumes in the work place was significantly associated with dental erosion and deteriorated oral health status. Such exposure was also detrimental to general health. Findings pointed to the need of establishing appropriate educational, preventive and treatment measures coupled with efficient surveillance and environmental monitoring for detection of acid fumes in the workplace atmosphere.