African Journal of
Microbiology Research

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Microbiol. Res.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1996-0808
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJMR
  • Start Year: 2007
  • Published Articles: 5239

Short Communication

Quantitative analysis of changes in bacterial aerosols during endodontic, periodontic and prosthodontic treatments

Hossein Labaf1, Parviz Owlia2, Ali Taherian3 and Roza Haghgoo4*
  1Department of Endodontics, Dental School, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran.     2Department of microbiology, School of Medicine, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran.   3Department of Endodontics, Islamic Azad University, Dental branch, Tehran, Iran. 4Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Dental School, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 31 October 2011
  •  Published: 23 November 2011

Abstract

 

Aerosols are solid or liquid particles which are ejected during dental treatments into air and develop air-borne infection. The aim of this study was to investigate the amount of bacterial aerosols during endodontic, periodontic and prosthodontic treatments. In this study, air samples were collected during three different dental treatments. This sampling was performed at four different distances from the patients' mouth within 7 days. The bacterial growth was assessed using blood agar plates. Data was analyzed using Kruskal-wallis test. The results obtained show that the greatest amount of aerosol was observed in prosthodontic treatment and the least value was shown during endodontic procedure (P<0.0001). Regarding the increased number of aerosols during prosthodontic treatments, preventive interaction for infection control is inevitable.

 

Key words: Bacterial aerosols, dental treatments, infection transmission, blood agar, air sampling.