title: Survey of responsible handling of local anesthetic in Indian dental operatory.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Dental operatory requires handling of numerous toxic fluids such as denture acrylic monomer, alcohol and formalin for effective oral care delivery. The efficacy and responsible handling of such fluids has not been analyzed among Indian dentists and this study aims to address this lacunae.
  
  
  METHODS
  Closed ended questionnaire was distributed through email to Indian dentists in July 2012. After inclusion/exclusion criteria, 1484 practitioners constituted the study group with a response rate of 52%.
  
  
  METHODS
  SPSS(®) Version 17.0 (SPSS-IBM Inc., IL, USA) was used to carry out statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics were presented. Chi square test was used to identify the association between the parameters; P ≤ 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Males (80.8%), undergraduates (78%), exclusive practitioners (81.2%), urban practitioners (68.5%) were the predominant respondents. Predominant of the respondents (97%) used local anesthetic (LA) from bottles. Eight percent have encountered instances of injecting formalin instead of LA in their settings. Safe disposal rules and regulations (P ≤ 0.05), opinion on injecting the other fluids instead of LA as a severe negligent act (P ≤ 0.05) were statistically significant between age groups. Educational status did not appear to influence the outcome. Only a third of the respondents were aware of the rules and regulations for safe disposal of empty LA bottles while 49.1% were not aware of them and willing to learn.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The lacunae in responsible handling of toxic fluids need to be addressed to prevent inadvertent and negligence suits against dentists, highlighting the need through continuing dental education programmes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Ragas Dental College and Hospital, Uthandi, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India ; Marundeeshwara Oral Pathology Services and Analytics, Tiruvanmiyur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Thavarajah
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rooban
authors.forename: Umadevi Krishnamohan
authors.initials: UK
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Joshua
authors.forename: Kannan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ranganathan
keywords: Formalin; injection; local anesthetics; responsible handling; safe disposal