Introduction Dental technicians are exposed to various chemicals, including silica particles and metals. The aim of this study is to explore the pneumoconiosis risk among dental technicians.

Methods This is a cross-sectional study. We reviewed medical records of patients diagnosed with pneumoconiosis who were admitted to outpatient occupational disease centre between 2013 and 2015. Pneumoconiosis was diagnosed by X-ray radiograms in accordance to ILO procedures and with High Resolution Computarized Tomography (HRCT).

Result Pneumoconiosis was diagnosed in 46 (65.7%) of the 70 dental technicians who were referred to our hospital. There were 45 (97.8%) male and 1 (2.2%) female cases. Radiologically, 16 cases were defined as 2/3 or more of profusion and 11 cases had large opacity. In 3 (6,5%) cases who had profusion 0/1, The most frequent findings are micronodules and lymphadenopathy in HRCT. Consolidation, conglomerate masses and ground glass opacities are also described alongside the reticular opacities. There was a poor correlation between pulmonary function tests and profusion, (correlation coefficient were between: −0,18 and −0,058). There was no correlation observed between profusion and age started to work and exposure duration.

Discussion The study showed that pneumoconiosis among dental technicians is a great risk. Especially sandblasting procedures is raise the risk of pneumoconiosis. This shows that there are serious limitations in control measures and employee’ health monitoring.