A progressive and often fatal lung disease killed dentists at a much faster rate than that of the general population at a Virginia hospital over the past two decades, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC reported that idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis affected eight male dentists and a dental technician out of 900 patients studied, Newsweek reported. Although the dentists only represented 1 percent of the number with the disease, only 0.038 percent of people in the U.S. are dentists.
Seven of the patients studied had already died of the disease, which causes scarring in the lungs and prevents oxygen from getting into the heart and brain through the blood, Newsweek reported. It is called "idiopathic" if no cause for the disease is known. Many patients who have IPF die within three to five years of diagnosis.
Symptoms of IPF include shortness of breath, dry, chronic cough, weight loss, fatigue, joint and muscle pains, and clubbed fingers or toes, Newsweek reported.
One questionnaire given to a living IPF patient before he died revealed that he cleaned and polished dental equipment and prepared amalgams and impressions without respiratory protection, the CDC study reported. Some of the chemicals used in these processes are potentially toxic to the respiratory system, the CDC reported. It is not known whether this behavior was a pattern with others that had the disease.
"We do work with materials and with human bioproducts that are potentially damaging to our bodies if we inhale them," Dr. Paul Casamassimo, chief policy officer of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry Pediatric Oral Health and Research Center, told CNN.
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