NEEDLE STICK INJURIES

Objective: The aim of our study is to access the knowledge, attitude, practiceand prevalence of needle-stick injuries among dental practitioners including both dentists andstudents of Islamic International Dental Hospital, Islamabad. Study Design: Cross sectional.Setting: Islamic International Dental College and Hospital. Period: June to July 2016. Samplesize was 200 (111 dentists and 89 students). Materials and Methods: Questionnaires havingquestions regarding knowledge and attitude of students and dentists towards NSI weredistributed. For the interpretation of results, frequencies and percentages were calculated andrepresented as bar graph and pie charts. Chi square test was applied to compare results ofdentists and students and P values were calculated in order to check the significance of results.Results: The results showed that dentists (59.3%), at IIDH, were at a higher risk of needle stickinjuries as compared to students (40.6%). They had sufficient knowledge regarding NSI. Amongall the other departments, the prevalence of NSI was highest in the oral surgery department.Majority of the incidents occurred during needle recapping and disposal. Only about half ofthe students (51.4%) and dentists (50%) reported their injuries, the major reasons for whichwere carelessness and not considering it too important. Conclusions: Needle stick injuries areresponsible for a number of blood borne diseases and are prevalent more among the dentistsof IIDH as compared to dental students. NSI are mainly associated with recapping needles,while administering injections and cleaning instruments.