Frequency of hepatitis in dental health personnel in Norway

Abstract

Hepatitis B infection is considered a risk to dentists and their ancillary staff. To evaluate the magnitude of the risk for personnel in dental practice in Norway a questionnaire survey and a serologic investigation was performed, both disclosing frequencies of hepatitis B insignificantly higher than those in the general Norwegian population. The occurrence of anti-HBs in the general population, represented by 800 sera, appeared to be lower than the corresponding values found in Sweden and Denmark.