Nonmalignant Respiratory Disease Mortality Among Dentists in the United States From 1979 Through 2018.

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Journal of the American Dental Association (1939), 2025, v. 156, no. 2: Nonmalignant Respiratory Disease Mortality Among Dentists in the United States From 1979 Through 2018.
• Journal Article:
  Journal of the American Dental Association (1939)
• Personal Author:
  Fechter-Leggett, Ethan D. ; Lipman, Ruth D. ; Tomasi, Suzanne E. ; Nett, Randall J. ; Cox-Ganser, Jean M.
• Description:
  Dentists can be exposed to dust and nanoparticles from teeth, dental composites, and metal alloys generated during dental procedures, and exposure to dust can cause respiratory diseases, including pulmonary fibrosis. The authors describe mortality from nonmalignant respiratory diseases (NMRDs) among dentists in the United States.
  
  The authors submitted information on US dentists who died from 1979 through 2018 to a centralized US death records database to obtain underlying causes of death. Decedent data that met records-matching criteria were analyzed using the Life Table Analysis System software (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) to calculate proportionate mortality ratios (PMRs), indirectly standardized for age, sex, race, and 5-year calendar period with 95% CIs, for NMRD and a group of International Classification of Diseases, Ninth and Tenth Revision codes approximating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
  
  Among 21,928 dentist decedents with complete race information, 1,583 deaths (7.2%) resulted from NMRD. Proportionate mortality for dentist decedents was significantly lower than the general population for NMRD overall (PMR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.62 to 0.69), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (PMR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.41 to 0.48), and pneumonia (PMR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.81) but significantly higher than the general population for the pulmonary fibrosis group (PMR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.37 to 1.80).
  
  Dentists had decreased proportionate mortality for most NMRD and increased proportionate mortality for underlying causes of death associated with pulmonary fibrosis.
  
  Existing engineering controls that reduce inhalational exposures during dental procedures might be inadequate. Improved characterization of these exposures could help inform more effective engineering controls.
• Content Notes:
  Author manuscript
• Subjects:
  • Humans
  • Dentists
  • Male
  • Female
  • Middle Aged
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Occupational Diseases
  • Occupational Exposure
  • Cause of Death
  More +
• Keywords:
  • Dentists
  • Occupational Health
  • Pulmonary Fibrosis
  • Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
  • Occupational Exposure
  • Inhalation Exposure
• Source:
  Journal of the American Dental Association (1939), 2025, v. 156, no. 2
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adaj.2024.11.002
• ISSN:
  0002-8177 ; 1943-4723
• Pubmed ID:
  39729055
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC11907762
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Pages in Document:
  99-1090000000 (18 pdf pages)
• Volume:
  156
• Issue:
  2
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/261822/cdc_261822_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 877.58 KB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9361fd997a4ac0fb05552e641be68b83a954ebf5d8d747b8aa17a2123d3e7ab3c57bfb924f324edea94723803ea4b59f7e59d23164e9e07cf251180fdedce60f