Knowledge, Attitude, And Practice Of Dental Waste Management Among Private Dentists In Enugu Metropolitan City, Enugu State, Nigeria
Ayuk Martin Bate
Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu (ESUT)
Dr Raphael Ochiaka
Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu (ESUT)
Keywords: Dental Waste, Management, Practice, Dental Clinic, Dentist
Abstract
The study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices of dental waste management among private Dentist of Enugu Metropolitan city. The study adopted a descriptive cross sectional survey design. The study was carried out in Enugu State Nigeria. The population of the study was one hundred and ten dentist (110) drawn from twenty private dental clinics in Enugu Metropolitan city. Proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to sample 5% of the population. Thus the sampled population was 22 dentists comprising of 15 males and 7 females. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled “Dental Waste Management Practice by Private Dentist (DWMPPD). Test-retest method was used to test the reliability of the instrument. The internal consistency of the survey instrument was ascertained by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.89 analyses. The Z-test statistics was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. Research questions were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The results of the study showed that private dentists in Enugu have a poor attitude towards waste management practice. The study also showed that dental waste is disposed together with municipal wastes, which is below the standard guide line for medical waste management by World Health Organization (WHO). The researcher recommended that Federal and States environmental protection such as Enugu State management Authority (ESWAMA) should set up specialized sub-divisions which would be solely in charge of medical waste collection and disposal.