NEW YORK: Eastman Institute for Oral Health (EIOH) at the University of Rochester Medical Center recently developed a tool to investigate and improve the air quality in the dental clinic.
The clinical procedures at the dental clinic often produce spatters, droplets and aerosols. However, EIOH recent research published in the Journal of Dental Research showed if a room's ventilation rate was low, respiratory aerosol particles could remain in the air indoor for a long time, making it significant to facilitate respiratory aerosol removal.
Improved ventilation and air filtration have been the crucial measures in a multi-layered approach for the safe provision of dental care during an infectious respiratory disease pandemic.
Therefore the researchers at EIOH developed strategies to improve a room's ventilation rate to minimize potential exposures of airborne viruses such as coronavirus to patients and providers.
They have found that carbon dioxide levels in dental offices have been directly associated with ventilation rate and the number of people in the room. This study, however, became the basis for developing the ventilation calculator.
They developed a calculator along with other tools to help dentists quickly determine the ventilation rate, measured in air changes per hour, for any room.