A Quantitative and Qualitative Survey of Dental Wastes in Qazvin, Iran

Considering that the first step of dental waste management is identification and classification of these wastes, the current study analyzed the dental wastes of Qazvin, Iran, with respect to the quantity and quality in the public and private centers in the spring of 2009 In this study, the dentistry centers of Qazvin province were split into two groups of public and private centers and from the 32 public centers and 98 private centers, 10 public centers and 40 private centers were selected. Considering the previous studies about dental waste, these wastes were divided into 6 groups (polluted equipments, infected tissues, sharp objects and blades, consumptive material, chemicals, and dental material). The data were analyzed with Microsoft Excel software. The analyses show that the content of private centers is 12% polluted equipment, 1% infectious tissues, 36% blades, 51% consumptive equipments, and dental materials and chemicals were insignificant. In the public centers 13% of wastes were polluted equipments, 8% infected tissues, 13% blades, 66% consumptive equipments, and dental materials and chemicals were negligible. This study showed that the dental wastes in public and private centers have the meaningful correlation. This study showed that dental wastes in public and private centers have a meaningful correlation. For improving dental waste management, the Qazvin University of Medical Sciences and municipality and other responsible organizations should collect and dispose these wastes separately. Furthermore, the deficiency in the collection and disposal of dental wastes, such as shortage of equipment and deficiency of cooperation between organizations should be further analyzed