Spatter contamination in dental practices--how can it be prevented?

UNLABELLED Infectious diseases endanger all dental personnel during treatment, especially when spatter and aerosols are produced. Therefore, there is a strong need for better infection control principles during all treatments. The purpose of this in-vitro pilot study was to measure the environmental spatter contamination through a fluorescence technique. Scaling was performed using different power-driven devices and high-volume evacuation combined with a newly developed cannula (PS), standard suction cannulas (STS) and saliva ejectors (CDS). MATERIAL AND METHODS One sonic (AIR) and two ultrasonic devices (TIG, VEC) were utilized to remove biofilm from 168 artificial teeth in a manikin head. Teeth were scaled for 120s supra- or subgingivally. The spatter contamination of an area of 1.5m2 around the manikin head was assessed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The contaminated area (%) was significantly different for the AIR (median [25th; 75th percentiles]: 2.5 [1.16; 6.05]) versus TIG (0.25 [0.18; 0.88]) and VEC (0.08 [0.06; 0.1]) (p<0.001). Irrespective of the instrument, subgingival scaling led to a less contaminated area (0.18 [0.07; 1.05]) than supragingival scaling (0.34 [0.1; 2.24]) (p < 0.001). High-volume evacuation combined with STS (0.17 [0.07; 1.04]) and PS (0.18 [0.07; 1.14]) reduced the contamination similarly (p=0.302) and was more effective compared to CDS (1.01 [0.12-5.78]) (p<0.001; p=0.002). Beside the limitation of an in-vitro investigation, it can be conclude that only high-volume evacuation with an adequately calibrated cannula is capable of significantly reducing the amount of spatter contamination produced during power-driven scaling.