Document Type : Original Article
Authors
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, HP Government Dental College, Shimla, India
Abstract
Today, viral hepatitis has become a silent epidemic worldwide. It is the major cause of liver
cirrhosis and liver carcinoma. In a dental office, infections can be expedited through several
routes, including direct or indirect contact with blood, oral fluids, droplet splatter, aerosols,
etc. The aim of the present review is to increase the awareness among dental practitioners,
so as to reduce the burden of hepatitis in their community. Electronic databases like PubMed,
Medline, ProQuest, etc. were searched using the keywords hepatitis, dentist, liver disease,
and infection control. Manual search of various journals and books was also carried out. Only
highly relevant articles from English literature were considered for the present review. The
results revealed that the dentists were among the high-risk groups for hepatitis, and they have
little information on the factors associated with adherence to hepatitis B vaccination. A dentist
can play a major role in the prevention of hepatitis by considering each and every patient as a
potential carrier of hepatitis. Proper infection control, sterilization, and prophylactic vaccination
protocols should be followed in order to reduce the risk of hepatitis.
Keywords
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