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Local exhaust ventilation to control dental aerosols and droplets

1 min read Research and writing skills
The study ‘Local Exhaust Ventilation to Control Dental Aerosols and Droplets’, published in the Journal of Dental Research (JDR), investigated the effect of a local exhaust ventilation (LEV) device on aerosols and droplets produced during dental procedures. These devices are designed to be placed over the patient’s mouth to capture aerosols and droplets at the source.

Researchers at Newcastle University conducted experiments on dental mannequins. Ten-minute crown preparations were performed with an air-turbine handpiece in a large open plan clinic, and full mouth ultrasonic scaling was performed for ten minutes in a single dental surgery. Fluorescein was added to instrument irrigation reservoirs as a tracer. In both settings, optical particle counters (OPCs) were used to measure aerosol particles between 0.3 – 10.0 μm and liquid cyclone air samplers were used to capture aerosolised fluorescein tracer. An LEV device with high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration and a flow rate of 5,000 L/min was tested during the experiments.

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