Prevalence of Color Vision Anomalies among Dental Professionals

Zodinliana Ngente; Baliram Jadav; Syed Aafaque; Abhijit Patil; Rajtilak Govindarajulu; Prabu Muthusamy; J Suresh Babu; C Swarnalatha; Abhishek Singh Nayyar

doi:10.4103/meajo.meajo_529_20

Prevalence of Color Vision Anomalies among Dental Professionals

Middle East Afr J Ophthalmol. 2021 Dec 31;28(3):169-173. doi: 10.4103/meajo.meajo_529_20. eCollection 2021 Jul-Sep.

Authors

Zodinliana Ngente¹, Baliram Jadav², Syed Aafaque³, Abhijit Patil⁴, Rajtilak Govindarajulu⁵, Prabu Muthusamy⁶, J Suresh Babu⁷, C Swarnalatha⁷, Abhishek Singh Nayyar⁸

Affiliations

¹ Consultant Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon, Trinity Hospital, Silaimual, Melthum, Aizawl, Mizoram, India.
² Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopaedics, Meghna Institute of Dental Sciences, Nizamabad, Telangana, India.
³ Consultant Orthodontist, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India.
⁴ Department of Prosthodontics and Crown and Bridge, The KLE Academy of Higher Education and Research, KLE V.K. Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Belgaum, Karnataka, India.
⁵ Department of Prosthodontics and Crown and Bridge, RVS Dental College and Hospital, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.
⁶ Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, RVS Dental College and Hospital, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.
⁷ Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, Division of Periodontology, College of Dentistry, University of Ha'il, Ha'il, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Saraswati Dhanwantari Dental College and Hospital and Post-graduate Research Institute, Parbhani, Maharashtra, India.

Abstract

Purpose: Color blindness is one of the potential disabilities affecting the ability of color perception by the eye. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of color blindness among dental professionals.

Methods: For the present study, a total of 198 dental professionals were randomly selected as subjects who were asked to fill the required questionnaire followed by which their color vision status was evaluated using the Ishihara test. The results obtained were subjected to statistical analysis. Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). The prevalence of color blindness, age specificity, and the ratio of the occurrence of color blindness in relation to gender were assessed using Chi-square test for independence and Chi-square test with Yates's correction for independence when the expected frequency was <5. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: The present study reported 3.54% prevalence of color blindness among the study population. A higher number of cases were reported from males (9.26%) than females (1.39%). (P < 0.05) Furthermore, the prevalence of color blindness was found to be more in faculty members (5.88%) than in students with a reported prevalence of 3.31%.

Conclusion: The present study reported high prevalence of color blindness in dental professionals while they were totally unaware of it.

Keywords: Color vision anomalies; Ishihara test; dental professionals.

MeSH terms

Color Perception Tests
Color Vision Defects* / epidemiology
Color Vision*
Dentists
Female
Humans
Male
Prevalence