Illness in patients following exposure to dental aerosols.

This well-planned study of the relationship of aerosols in dental operating rooms and the incidence of respiratory diseases did not produce the correlation which might be anticipated. The production of microbial-laden aerosols during dental operations, particularly those employing high-speed instruments with water-coolant sprays, has been shown t o cause marked increases in the concentrations of airborne microorganisms found in dental operating rooms.41 ' l 6 , As a consequence, questions have been raised about the potential hazard t o health which these aerosols may create as airborne infections of dental personnel, 43 57 8* T o date, the degree of risk experienced by dental personnel or patients from exposure t o airborne microorganisms remains speculative. N o studies have established a direct relationship yet between occurrence of an infection and the microorganisms found in the air of a dental operating room, and the epidemiology of airborne infection in such an environment virtually is unexplored. Because acute respiratory disease represents one of the major factors which contributes t o the man-hours lost from productive employment, it appears of interest t o learn whether the dental operating room plays a significant role in the dissemination of such disease by airborne transmission. The purpose of the study about to be reported is to assess the effect, primarily on acute respiratory disease, in those patients exposed to dental aerosols in a clinical environment. and dental patients.'' 4, Method Employed The method of study had to be retrospective since it covered a period of four years from January 1966 through December 1969. The population studied consisted of 388 recruits at the Great-Lakes Naval Training Center. The experiemental group contained 263 individuals who received dental treatment during their nine-week period of training. The remaining 125 individuals, serving as the group of controls, had no dental treatment during this period other than the prophylaxis (with stannous fluoride) that all recruits receive during their first week of training. All subjects had been selected early for duty in Submarine Service Schools upon completion of the initial training as recruits. The distribution of the sample for the experimental group and the controls is shown in Tables 1 and 2. The standard dental record for the Federal Services (SF603) was used t o obtain the following information for each subject who received dental treatment: (1) number of visits for treatment, (2) time spent at each visit, and (3) the total time …