In the last week of May, we welcomed Edgar Beltrán to the School of Dental Sciences, from the Facultad de Odontología at the Universidad El Bosque in Bogotá, Colombia. Edgar is a visiting PhD student, and will be working on a bacteriophage model of dental aerosols, with the Newcastle Bioaerosols Research Group during his two month visit.
A press release from the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) has highlighted a study looking at Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) from the Newcastle Dental Aerosols Research Group.
Ten-minute crown preparations were performed on a dental mannequin 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.
“This study shows that the effect of LEV was substantially greater than suction alone for the air-turbine and was similar to the effect of suction for the ultrasonic scaler. While no mitigation measure alone will completely eliminate risk, LEV appears to be a useful approach, which in addition to other measures, substantially reduces dispersion of aerosols, and therefore risk of exposure to pathogens.”
IADR President, Professor Eric Reynolds; The University of Melbourne, Australia
The results show that using LEV reduced the dispersion of aerosols from the air turbine handpiece by 90% within 0.5 m, and this was 99% for the ultrasonic scaler. The settling of larger droplets was also measured for the air-turbine, and this was reduced by 95% within 0.5 m when LEV was used.
We are delighted to share that James Allison has been awarded two prestigious fellowships. The first is a the Faculty of Dental Surgery Research Fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons of England. This fellowship allows clinical trainees to obtain research training by covering salary, on-costs and research consumables, and will fund the first year of James’s PhD. James’ second fellowship, which will fund years two and three of James’s PhD, is a Wellcome Clinical Research Training Fellowship from the Wellcome 4ward North Clinical PhD programme—an exceptional programme led by four of the UK’s top universities: The Universities of Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, and Sheffield.
James’s PhD will look at the dispersion of viruses and other pathogens in the aerosols produced during healthcare procedures, using dentistry as a model. James will be based at Newcastle University, and will work with his supervisors and collaborators in the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield, and Northumbria, as well as the UK’s national measurement institute—the National Physical Laboratory. This work aims to understand how infection might be transmitted in tiny water droplets during procedures like drilling and scaling teeth, and how this can be controlled in the future.
The Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme have issued updated recommendations on the Mitigation of Aerosol Generating Procedures in Dentistry. This document cites research from the Newcastle Dental Bioaerosols Research Group to inform their recommendations on aerosol-generating procedures, and the use of dental suction.
The Newcastle Dental Bioaerosols Research Group were awarded a research grant from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Small Research Pump Priming Grants scheme.
The project “Evaluating bioaerosol and splatter following dental aerosol generating procedures – preliminary investigation” will allow the group to develop biological models of viral dispersion in bioaerosols.
The first paper from the Newcastle Dental Aerosols Research Group has now been published in the Journal of Oral Rehabilitation.
This paper reports our methodology for examining the distribution of aerosols and splatter produced by dental procedures which uses a fluorescent dye. We are the first group to apply both digital image analysis and spectrofluorometric analysis to the study of dental aerosols.
We found that most contamination from dental procedures was distributed in the first 1 – 1.5 metres from the procedure, but for some procedures (particularly ultrasonic scaling), contamination could be detected some distance away.
The findings in this paper tell us where any “water-spray” from dental procedures go, but further work will need to show how much biological material is carried in this water-spray before we can better understand the risk of cross-infection posed by dental aerosols.
The research was funded by the School of Dental Sciences, Newcastle University and the British Endodontic Society.
The Newcastle Dental Bioaerosols Research Group were awarded a research grant from the British Endodontic Society from the Society’s “Call for research to address the impact of AGP’s in dentistry with respect to COVID-19”.
The project “Dental aerosol generating procedures: assessment of risk and mitigation strategies” was will allow the group to complete vital research into ways to manage the impact of COVID-19 on dentistry.
Recommendations from a Short Life Working Group (SLWG), that included all devolved UK nations and representatives from Public Health England (PHE) and academia, included research from the Newcastle Dental Bioaerosols Research Group.
The authors conducted a rapid literature review and appraisal of the current evidence, producing recommendations to inform future policy and the development of guidance. The Chief Dental Officers see this as “a welcome addition to the information available on AGPs in the COVID period”
A guidance document published by Dental Schools Council has outlined measures to allow a return to student-led treatment of patients, including treatment on open-plan dental clinics. This document cites early research from the Newcastle Dental Bioaerosols Research Group and will help to allow a return to clinical dental education.
