No illness tied to dental aerosols
By LOIS
BAKER
Contributing Editor
Ever
since the dental community learned that water lines supplying their
water-cooled drills harbor bacteria, the question of whether breathing
in mists spun off by drills causes respiratory illness has been a subject
of controversy.
A
study by researchers from the UB School of Dental Medicine, presented
today in San Diego at the International Association of Dental Research
meeting, provides a preliminary answer: Probably not.
The
potential health hazards of long-term exposure to "dental aerosols,"
as these mists of airborne water droplets are called, have been the
subject of investigative television programs and articles in journals.
However,
few attempts have been made to determine if there is a relationship
between exposure to dental aerosols and actual illness among a cohort
of dental workers. In an effort to identify such a relationship, UB
dental researchers called on a ready study cohortdental studentsin
three dental schools.
"Fourth-year
students routinely spend up to 30 hours a week in clinics and first-year
students spend none," said Frank A. Scannapieco, associate professor
of oral biology and senior advisor on the study. "Clinic hours increase
in linear fashion through the second and third year, so the hypothesis
was that if dental aerosols were a risk, there would be an increase
in respiratory illness among dental students by year as their clinic
exposure increased."
Scannapieco
and Maris Ditolla, a second-year UB dental student, administered a detailed
questionnaire to 817 dental students and residents at UB, University
of Southern California and Marquette University.
In
addition to standard demographic information, participants provided
a history of respiratory illness during the previous year.
"Given
that students in the last year of school would have more exposure, we
thought that if there was a relationship, it would show up as more illness
in the fourth year," said Scannapieco. "We saw no difference between
classes and prevalence of respiratory disease."
Alex
Ho of the UB Department of Oral Biology, Casey Chen of the University
of Southern California and Andrew Dentino of Marquette University also
were involved in the study.
The
research was funded by a U.S. Public Health Service grant.