CLINICAL EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AN INDIVIDUALIZED VOLUMETRIC NOZZLE OF A LOCAL EVACUATION SYSTEM FOR REDUCING THE MICROBIAL LOAD OF DENTAL AEROSOL DURING TOOTH PREPARATION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/3041-1394.2026-2.7Keywords:
dental aerosol, high-volume evacuation, tooth preparation, airborne microbial contamination, suction device, prosthodonticsAbstract
Introduction The generation of bioaerosols during dental procedures constitutes a significant occupational and biological hazard, posing potential risks to both patients and healthcare personnel. Objective. To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of an individualized volumetric high-volume evacuation attachment in reducing airborne microbial contamination during tooth preparation for fixed dental prostheses. Materials and methods. A pilot randomized controlled clinical study included 20 patients aged 40–65 years undergoing high-speed tooth preparation. Participants were allocated to conventional high-volume evacuation (n = 10) or high-volume evacuation with a patented individualized volumetric attachment (n = 10). Airborne microbial contamination was assessed by passive sedimentation using 25 Petri dishes containing tryptic soy agar: five background samples and ten samples for each evacuation system. Plates were exposed for 60 min, incubated at 37 °C for 24 h, and microbial concentrations were calculated using Omeliansky’s formula. Group differences were evaluated using the Kruskal–Wallis test. Results. Mean background microbial concentration was 115.24 ± 21.52 CFU/m³. Concentrations were 323.45 ± 16.39 CFU/m³ with the individualized attachment and 474.05 ± 36.42 CFU/m³ with conventional evacuation. The overall difference was significant (H(2) = 21.03; p < 0.001; ε² = 0.865). Compared with the conventional device, the individualized attachment reduced microbial contamination by 150.59 CFU/m³, corresponding to a 31.77% relative reduction (adjusted p = 0.0045; Cliff’s δ = –1.00). Conclusions. The individualized volumetric high-volume evacuation attachment significantly reduced viable airborne aerobic microorganisms during tooth preparation compared with a conventional suction cannula. Optimization of suction geometry may strengthen source-control strategies within multimodal dental infection prevention.
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