High-speed dental handpiece with coolant delivery limits aerosol contamination
Electric micromotor handpieces which use water-jet coolant alone without compressed air produce localized (within treatment bay) droplet contamination but are unlikely to produce aerosol contamination beyond the immediate treatment area, finds a study.
The study is published in the Journal of Dentistry.
High-speed dental instruments produce aerosol and droplets. James R Allison et al from the School of Dental Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, United Kingdom carried out the present study with the objective to evaluate aerosol and droplet production from a novel electric micromotor handpiece (without compressed air coolant) in real world clinical settings.
The authors performed 10-minute upper incisor crown preparations in triplicate in an open-plan clinic with mechanical ventilation providing 3.45 air changes per hour. A 1:5 ratio electric micromotor handpiece which allows water coolant without compressed air (Ti-Max Z95L, NSK) was used at three speeds: 60,000 (60 K), 120,000 (120 K), and 200,000 (200 K) revolutions per minute.
Coolant solutions contained fluorescein sodium as a tracer (2.65 mmol L − 1). High-speed air-turbine positive control, and negative control conditions were conducted. Aerosol production was evaluated at 3 locations (0.5 m, 1.5 m, and 1.7 m) using: (1) an optical particle counter (OPC; 3016-IAQ, Lighthouse) to detect all aerosol; and (2) a liquid cyclone air sampler (BioSampler, SKC Ltd.) to detect aerosolised fluorescein, which was quantified by spectrofluorometric analysis.
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