Survey of dental solid waste management in Sistan and Baluchestan Province

At present time, dental solid waste management continues to be a major challenge, particularly in most healthcare facilities of the developing world such as Iran. In this country, few studies have been conducted on dental solid waste management and its composition. In this study, hazardous status of dental solid waste, which has a significant role in cross-infection chain, was studied. This work is a descriptive and cross sectional study which was performed during 2013-2014. For this research, 159 publicand private dental centers in Sistan and Baluchestan province were selected and both the composition and generation rate of dental solid waste were measured. Dental solid wastes were categorized to four main categories including domestic type, potentially infectious, chemical and pharmaceutical and toxic wastes and, finally, they were analysed. The results showed that the percent of potentially infectious, domestic type, chemical and pharmaceutical and toxic wastes were 80.3, 11.7, 6.3 and 1.7%, respectively. Also, the results indicated that the dental solid waste generation rate for total waste, potentially infectious, chemical and pharmaceutical waste, domestic type and toxic waste was 169.9, 153.3, 11.2,8.6 and 3.3 g per patient per day (g/p.d), respectively. Additionally, the generation rate of dental solid waste for total waste, domestic type, potentially infectious, chemical and pharmaceutical and toxic waste was 194.5, 22.6, 156.1, 12.3 and 3.4 kg/day, respectively. For the best management of dental solid waste, it is suggested that source reduction, separation, reuse and recycling programs be implemented and each section of dental waste be collected and disposed separately, in agreement with related standards.