Aerosol exposure of staff during dental treatments: a model study.
BMC Oral Health
; 22(1): 128, 2022 04 15.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1791015
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Due to exposure to potentially infectious aerosols during treatments, the dental personnel is considered being at high risk for aerosol transmitted diseases like COVID-19. The aim of this study was to evaluate aerosol exposure during different dental treatments as well as the efficacy of dental suction to reduce aerosol spreading.METHODS:
Dental powder-jet (PJ; Air-Flow®), a water-cooled dental handpiece with a diamond bur (HP) and water-cooled ultrasonic scaling (US) were used in a simulation head, mounted on a dental unit in various treatment settings. The influence of the use of a small saliva ejector (SE) and high-volume suction (HVS) was evaluated. As a proxy of aerosols, air-born particles (PM10) were detected using a Laser Spectrometer in 30 cm distance from the mouth. As control, background particle counts (BC) were measured before and after experiments.RESULTS:
With only SE, integrated aerosol levels [median (Q25/Q75) µg/m3 s] for PJ [91,246 (58,213/118,386) µg/m3 s, p < 0.001, ANOVA] were significantly increased compared to BC [7243 (6501/8407) µg/m3 s], whilst HP [11,119 (7190/17,234) µg/m3 s, p > 0.05] and US [6558 (6002/7066) µg/m3 s; p > 0.05] did not increase aerosol levels significantly. The use of HVS significantly decreased aerosol exposure for PJ [37,170 (29,634/51,719) µg/m3 s; p < 0.01] and HP [5476 (5066/5638) µg/m3 s; p < 0.001] compared to SE only, even reaching lower particle counts than BC levels for HP usage (p < 0.001).CONCLUSIONS:
To reduce the exposure to potentially infectious aerosols, HVS should be used during aerosol-forming dental treatments.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
BMC Oral Health
Journal subject:
Dentistry
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S12903-022-02155-9
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