A survey on the quality and quantity of wastes produced in dental offices of Bojnoord, in 2014

Nowadays, wastes of dental offices have become a major environmental issue for their hazardous, toxic and pathogenic features. The aim of this study was to survey on the wastes produced in dental offices of Bojnord.
In this study 28 dentist's offices were studied. From each office, three samples were taken for three consecutive day’s week in a week. The samples were manually separated into 64 different components and weighed with a digital scale .The components were classified in 4 groups based on their hazardous characteristics. We analyzed the data by using descriptive statistics, SPSS 19 and the Excel software.
The total wastes production was 6162.31 Kg in one year. The share of infectious, semi household, chemical - pharmaceutical and toxic wastes was 40.85, 49.99, 7.47, and 1.69% respectively. The main wastes produced in dental offices consisted of 16 components which can be considered as more than 80% of the dental wastes.
It is suggested that dentists should be trained to reduce, separate and recycle the wastes in accordance with relevant rules and regulations. Because the segregation of recyclable parts from dental wastes can lead to reduction of a large amount of wastes and so that the costs of collection, transportation, disposal and disinfecting will be reduced.