The perceptual and behavioral influence on dental professionals from the noise in their workplace

Kuen Wai Ma, Cheuk Ming Mak, Hai Ming Wong

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A long-term exposure to the high-frequency dental noise is a potential hazard to the health of dental professionals and the quality of oral health service provisions. This study aims to thoroughly investigate the influence of an acoustic environment on the perceptions and behaviors of dental professionals. A multidimensional sound quality assessment that comprises the objective measurements of the acoustic and psychoacoustic metrics in different statistical levels and a self-administrated questionnaire was conducted in the Prince Philip Dental Hospital of Hong Kong. The results indicate that the dental professionals’ noise sensitivity and job-performance drops are mainly affected by loudness of noise. Moreover, two types of health risk perceptions, loudness-related and sharpness-related, were found to be associated with a health state of dental professionals. Also, a higher chance of having health-mediated avoidance was found for the dental professionals who had a worse health state and worked in a noisier workplace. These findings provide new knowledge on the development of a health-supportive acoustic environment.

Original languageEnglish
Article number107164
JournalApplied Acoustics
Volume161
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2020

Keywords

  • Acoustic environment
  • Behavior influence
  • Dental workplace
  • Perceptual influence
  • Psychoacoustics

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Acoustics and Ultrasonics

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