Bio-aerosol Reducing Procedures in Dentistry

The bio-aerosol reducing procedures like rubber dam application, pre-procedural oral rinse, and high-volume evacuators (HVE) used in dentistry are not that efficient, suggests a study published in the Acta Odontologica Scandinavica.

Bio-aerosols are routinely generated and airborne in clinical dentistry due to the operative instrumentation within an oral environment bathed in salivary organisms. The sources of bio-aerosols in dental clinics were:

• Ultrasonic scalers
• High-speed handpieces
• Air turbines
• Three in one syringes
• Air-water syringes

Studies conducted in hospitals reported 30 different bio-aerosol generating sources. Humans produced aerosols by coughing and sneezing.

SARS-CoV-2 transmission is responsible for the current pandemic that appears through airborne aerosols and droplets, thus, there has been an intense focus on such aerosol-generating procedures, and their reduction.

Samaranayake L et. al conducted a study aimed to evaluate the available data on three major measures: rubber dam application, pre-procedural oral rinse, and high-volume evacuators (HVE) aimed at reducing bio-aerosols.

The researchers searched PubMed via Ovid MEDLINE, EBSCO host, Cochrane Library and Web of Science databases between 01 January 1985 and 30 April 2020.

Results of the Study

• A total of 156 records in English literature were identified, and 17 clinical studies with 724 patients were included in the final analysis.
• Eligible articles revealed the inadequacy of three principal approaches used in contemporary dental practice to minimize such bio-aerosols: rubber dam application, pre-procedural oral rinses, and HVE.
• The latter is an extremely effective method to reduce bio-aerosols in dentistry, although no single method can provide blanket cover.

Thus, the researchers concluded that the present systematic review indicates that employing combination strategies of rubber dam, with a pre-procedural antimicrobial oral rinse, and HVE may contain bio-aerosols during operative procedures.

Reference

The efficacy of bio-aerosol reducing procedures used in dentistry: a systematic review by Samaranayake L et. al published in the Acta Odontologica Scandinavica.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00016357.2020.1839673