This work consisted in an investigation to check if odontology students and dental surgeons presented a hearing alteration due to the noise of high rolling motors. Mercury rates at the organism, levels and the kind of loss of hearing were analyzed. The study consisted of 80 students in all the stages of the course, 40 professionals exposed to the noise and 20 without noise expositions as a control groups. All of them were submitted to an audiometer exam in the frequencies from 250 Hz to 16 Khz and to an urine exam in case they dealt with mercury. The results indicated that 5% of the students and 70% of the professionals showed some loss of hearing. The professionals that presented higher values of hearing loss had mercury rates above the normal levels.
Hearing; Noise; Dentist
