title: Awareness about biomedical waste management and knowledge of effective recycling of dental materials among dental students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Biomedical waste management has become a concern with increasing number of dental practitioners in India. Being health care professionals, dentists should be aware regarding safe disposal of biomedical waste and recycling of dental materials to minimize biohazards to the environment. The aim of the present study was to assess awareness regarding biomedical waste management as well as knowledge of effective recycling and reuse of dental materials among dental students.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was conducted among dental students belonging from all dental colleges of Bhubaneswar, Odisha (India) from February 2016 to April 2016. A total of 500 students (208 males and 292 females) participated in the study, which was conducted in two phases. A questionnaire was distributed to assess the awareness of biomedical waste management and knowledge of effective recycling of dental materials, and collected data was examined on a 5-point unipolar scale in percentages to assess the relative awareness regarding these two different categorizes. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used to analyzed collected data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty-four percent of the dental students were not at all aware about the management of biomedical waste, 22% were moderately aware, 21% slightly aware, 7% very aware, and 5% fell in extremely aware category. Similarly, a higher percentage of participants (61%) were completely unaware regarding recycling and reusing of biomedical waste.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is lack of sufficient knowledge among dental students regarding management of biomedical waste and recycling or reusing of dental materials. Considering its impact on the environment, biomedical waste management requires immediate academic assessment to increase the awareness during training courses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics and Oral Implantology, Kalinga Institute of Dental Sciences, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
authors.forename: Rajeev
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ranjan
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics and Oral Implantology, Kalinga Institute of Dental Sciences, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
authors.forename: Ruchi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pathak
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics and Oral Implantology, Kalinga Institute of Dental Sciences, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
authors.forename: Dhirendra K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics and Oral Implantology, Kalinga Institute of Dental Sciences, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
authors.forename: Md
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jalaluddin
authors.affiliation: Department of Dentistry, Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Mayani, Satara, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Shobha A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Kore
authors.affiliation: Department of Prosthodontics, School of Dental Sciences, Karad, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Abhijeet R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Kore
keywords: Biomedical waste; dental materials; recycling