Dentistry and food safety – the oral health of food handlers at a public hospital in the city of Belém, Pará

Abstract

Objective: This research evaluated the oral health of 40 food handlers in the Nutrition and Diet Unit of a public hospital in Belém-Pará. Methods: Interview and intra-oral examination of the subjects.Results: The results showed a high prevalence of tooth decay and periodontal disease, in addition to a low level of education and motivation as regards oral health care in the studied sample.Conclusion: The authors concluded that oral health care and education should be included in publications for and training of food handlers,since oral health promotion would benefit these workers directly, by increasing their quality of life, and indirectly benefit the entirecommunity that consumes the food prepared by them. The results and conclusions of this work should encourage the development of oralhealth care promotion programmers as regards this particular group of employees, the food handlers.

Keywords

• manipulação de alimentos
• segurança alimentar e nutricional
• higiene dos alimentos
• saúde bucal
• food handling
• food safety
• food hygiene
• oral health