Table 1 Mechanism of Reported Percutaneous Injuries Among Dental Professionals, Washington State, 1995–2001.
From: Percutaneous injuries among dental professionals in Washington State
| Â | Job Category | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Activity | Dental Assistant N (%) | Dental Hygienist N (%) | Dentist N (%) |
Total Mechanism | 667 (100.0%) | 161 (100.0) | 66 (100.0) |
Cleaning Instrument | 160 (24.0) | 23 (14.3) | - |
Changing carpule | 125 (18.7) | 13 (8.1) | 5 (7.6) |
Recapping | 118 (17.7) | 29 (18.0) | 13 (19.7) |
Cape fell off while removing needle from syrenge | 57 (8.5) | 6 (3,7) | 4 (6.1) |
Disposal related | 36 (5.4) | 3 (1.9) | 2 (3.0) |
Unknown | 34 (5.1) | 5 (3.1) | 1 (1.5) |
Dr hit | 29 (4.3) | - | - |
Collision | 29 (4.3) | 4 (2.5) | 1 (1.5) |
Preparing | 23 (3.4) | 6 (3.7) | 1 (1.5) |
Local anesthetic injection | 21 (3.1) | 39 (24.2) | 22 (33.3) |
Device left on table | 11 (1.6) | 1 (0.6) | - |
Injecting other than a local | 9 (1.3) | 8 (5.0) | 2 (3.0) |
Unexpected jerk of patient | 6 (0.9) | 13 (8.1) | 3 (4.5) |
Dental cleaning | 6 (0.9) | 8 (5.0) | 1 (1.5) |
Surgery | 3 (0.4) | - | 11 (16.7) |
Blood Draw | - | 3 (1.9) | Â |