Statistical analysis
Data obtained from the study was coded and entered using the statistical package SPSS version 16. The mean values, standard deviation (SD) and ranges were then estimated for quantitative variables, as for the qualitative variables, the frequency distribution was calculated. Comparisons between exposed and control groups were done using the independent simple t-test. The correlations between individual variables were calculated using Pearson correlation coefficient. Ρ Values less than 0.05 and less than 0.005 were considered statistically significant and highly significant, respectively.
Results
The study population consists of exposed and control groups. The exposed group consisted of 32 dental staff 20 nurses (62.5%; 7 males and 13 females) and 12 dentists (37.5%; 8 males and 4 females working in department of pediatric dentistry). Their mean age was 43.23 ± 10.75 years ranging from 25 to 65 years, showing no statistically significant difference when compared with exposed group.
The mean value of measured creatinine corrected urinary mercury (U-Hg) among exposed dental personnel (10.02 ± 1.36 µg Hg/gm creatinine) was statistically significantly higher then that of the controls (4.74 ± 0.84 µg Hg/gm creatinine) p < 0.001; Table 1.
Estimation of total mean value of blood mercury showed significantly higher levels among the exposed dental personnel compared to their controls (7.74 ± 1.03 versus 4.79 ± 0.84 µg/L) p < .001; Table 1.
The indicators of renal function as albumin and α1 microgloblin in urine were significantly elevated at level p < 0.001 (Table 1) in exposed dental staff compared with control group.