Study of occupational exposure to mercury vapors in specialists Students at the Faculty of ‎Dentistry With Cold vapor atomic absorption technique

Introduction: dentists are exposed to mercury vapor due to occupational exposure to amalgam Which can endanger their health. the aim of this study was to measure the concentration of urinary mercury in dental students and the restorative specialists one of the dental schools in Iran in order to determine the effect of mercury vapor on them. Methods: The study population Including 40 dental students and 10 restoration specialists. Sample urine at the end of work time was collected, and the concentration of mercury in urine was measured by cold vapor atomic absorption spectrophotometry. A questionnaire was completed to determine the effects of some personal and environmental factors on the amount of urinary mercury. Data were analyzed by using SPSS software. Results: The mean concentration of urinary mercury in dental students was 15.18±4.34μg/L and the restoration specialists were 4.11±1.05μg/l. In addition, there was a significant difference between the concentrations of urinary mercury in the two groups (P <0.001). At specialist professors There was a negative correlation between urinary mercury and working hours per day (r=-0.78, p=0.007). Also, in this study, there was a significant relationship between urine mercury and sex, age, type of amalgam consumed, consumption of smoking and the number of amalgam restorations. Conclusion: Although the level of urine mercury in all samples was lower The recommended amount of ACGIH .Finally, the study is recommended mercury level monitoring for regularly evaluation of the workplace.