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High prevalence of extrapyramidal signs and symptoms in a group of Italian dental technicians.

Fabrizio E, Vanacore N, Valente M, Rubino A, Meco G

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Occupational and chronic exposure to solvents and metals is considered a possible risk factor for onset of Parkinson's disease and essential tremor. Dental technicians are exposed during the manufacture of dental prostheses to numerous chemicals that contain toxins known to affect the central nervous system, such as solvents (which contain n-hexane in particular) and metals (which contain mercury, iron, chromium, cobalt and nickel). METHODS: We performed an epidemiological and clinical study on all 27 dental technicians working in the same school for dental technicians. We asked all the technicians to fill in a self-administered questionnaire on extrapyramidal symptoms and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), a self-administered screening instrument, to detect current diagnosable psychiatric disorders. We propose to all 27 dental technician also a neurological examination and a detailed occupational anamnesis in our clinic. RESULTS: Of the 14 subjects who underwent the neurological examination, four had postural tremor and one had a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. CONCLUSIONS: We found an high prevalence of extrapyramidal symptoms in a group of male dental technicians working in a state technical high school in Rome. We believe that this finding could be due to the presence of toxins in the dental technician's work.

Published 9 August 2007 in BMC Neurol, 7(1): 24.
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