Big Ear®OSHA & HEARING LOSS ISSUES
IT’S COMING FOR THE DENTAL OFFICE
Rebecca K. Horton, RDA
Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Why not be ahead of the curve and investigate hearing protection for yourself and your staff immediately?
Just because you don’t have an apparent hearing loss issues at the moment does not mean that all is well. Protection with custom fitted ear plugs or THE ONE, specifically designed for dentists is recommended heartily. Such a simple solution to a big problem.
Problem:
In the dental profession we are accustomed to scientific terms, so this time I’m going to give it to you in scientific terms:
- Environmental noise-induced hearing impairment and Tinnitus is probably the most prevalent noise health effect according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
- This main organ of hearing is the cochlea and is part of your inner ear. Cochlear Damage means that all or part of your inner ear has been hurt. Damage to the cochlea typically causes permanent hearing loss. This is called sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL).
- A Mixed Hearing Loss occurs when SHL and Conductive Hearing Loss are present.
- Most dentists will practice about 35 years, with an average of 4 days per week, 50 weeks a year. 56,000 hours of exposure to dB above the OSHA limit of 86 dB is enough to make a dentist (and his staff) suffer serious hearing loss. Why wait til we’re mandated?
- Sensorineural Hearing Loss causes the fine hairs that line the canal to go away. Baldness of the ear canal, if you will. Once human hair cells have died, they cannot be regenerated. NOT REVERSIBLE. The cochlea is a snail-shaped, fluid-filled structure in the inner ear. Inside the cochlea is another structure called the organ of Corti. Hair cells are located on the basilar membrane of the cochlea. The cilia (the hair) of the hair cells make contact with another membrane called the tectorial membrane.
- Intermittent and continuous noise from high speed evacuation systems, drills, compressed air, amalgamators (yes, some of us still use amalgam), ultrasonic cleaners, model trimmers, vacuum pumps, handpiece oiling systems, autoclave release, phones, radio, tv, kids, parents, staff, air conditioning units, and toilet flushes contribute to Sensorineural Hearing Loss issues. A loss that occurs when these types of sound cause damage to the cochlea or the nerve pathways from the inner ear. Every day. If you add in the Noise-Induced Hearing Loss, chemicals, medications and Auditory Neuropathy you have a prescription for heartbreaking hearing loss issues.
Solution:
Why not be ahead of the curve and investigate hearing protection for yourself and your staff immediately?
Contact https://www.bigeartools.com/products/dentists-custom-hearing-protection/ and let the experts with years of experience help you before it’s too late.
OSHA will catch up to us soon enough.
A word to the wise should be sufficient.
This is a very interesting issue. We are not in an industrial or a manufacturing plant and yet we suffer from hearing damage and Tinnitus. I’m a suffer my self. It will only be a matter of time until OSHA understands this issue and it will be one more regulation issues that we will have to contend with. We need to as a dental body confront this and take measures to protect our selves and our office’s employees so we are not regulated.
PF
We just had a run in with OSHA. We did not get a fine, but one of our hygienists turned us in. They just went online and filed a form. I think they thought they would get paid or something for turning us in. It was a scare and were much more cautious on all things now.
We got off with a warning and it did not take long to fix our office and now I feel better.
Barbra
I work in construction and OSHA is now all over us. I remember when we heard that they would be investigating our industry and now they have the dental offices in their sites. Dentist have much more money and are stuck in an office with all there noises and Chemicals.
Here comes big bro.
Jack