The coronavirus (COVID-19) has challenged health professions and systems and has evoked different speeds of reaction and types of response around the world. The role of dental professionals in preventing the transmission of COVID-19 is critically important. While all routine dental care has been suspended in countries experiencing COVID-19 disease during the period of pandemic, the need for organised urgent care delivered by teams provided with appropriate personal protective equipment takes priority. Dental professionals felt a moral duty to reduce routine care for fear of spreading COVID-19 among their patients and beyond, but were understandably concerned about the financial consequences.
So it becomes necessary to put an additional layer of safety to facilitate the care and protection of both patients and staff.
in addition to personal protection (safety eyewear/mask/gloves/fluid resistant wear) and complete sterilisation of all instrumentation , the Extraoral Dental Suction is a great addition to the safety protocol.
Dental drills cause the formation of aerosol and splatter commonly contaminated with bacteria, viruses, fungi and blood. Oral surgery drills also cause aerosol in addition to splatter. Aerosols are liquid and solid particles suspended in air for protracted periods. Splatter is a mixture of air, water and/or solid substances .Both are a health risk to the dental team. Regular surgical face masks used in dentistry when correctly worn and frequently changed offer around 80% filtration rate. This is good protection for elective dentistry in normal circumstances, . The COVID-19 measures around 120 nm and aerosol particle sizes range from 3-100 nm. The use of a FFP3 respirator offers a filtration rate of 99% of all particles measuring up to 0.6 um. This information drove the moral messaging that I was keen to get out, but is of course only a part of the cross-infection control measures that should be used to safeguard dental professionals and enable them to continue with urgent care of their patients.
The extraoral dental suction system has ultra strong suction power to capture various harmful particulates effectively.
It’s 4 layer filtration system is proven to effectively filter ultrafine particles , the filtration efficiency is up to 99.995%
The built-in medical ultraviolet light will kill bacteria and viruse effectively as well.
This study conducted in (Tokyo Metropolitan Cancer and Infectious Diseases Center Komagome Hospital) shows the effect of extra-oral suction on aerosol reduction.
METHODS: This study included a 65 year-old male patient scheduled for undergoing periodontal scaling . Subgingival scaling was performed for buccal and lingual pockets.
Areas undergoing periodontal scaling is one side on the maxillary first incisor , second incisor and canine and another side on the mandibular second premolar, first molar and second molar, using an intra-oral suction device alone on the left side and both intra- and extra-oral
devices on the right side. The number of bacteria in the periodontal pockets are almost same between the right side and the left side.
The extra-oral suction system was operated for 3 minutes during subgingival scaling. The suction head was positioned 5cm from the treatment site at 45 degrees to the floor surface. The level of aerosol with intra-oral suction alone and with intra- and extra-oral suction combined was measured with Hach Ultra Analytics Met One Laser Particle Counter and the counts of bacterial colony withGSI Creos Basic Air.
CONCLUSION: The combined use of intra- and extra-oral suction devices resulted in lower level of aerosol and bacterial colony , suggesting the benefit of installing an extra-oral suction device for aerosol reduction during dental treatment.
