Cross-transmission in the Dental Office: Does This Make You Ill?

Abstract

Purpose of review: Recently, numerous scientific publications were published which shed new light on the possible risks of infection for dental healthcare workers and their patients. This review aimed to provide the latest insights in the relative risks of transmission of (pathogenic) micro-organisms in the dental office.

Recent findings: Of all different routes of micro-organism transmission during or immediately after dental treatment (via direct contact/via blood-blood contact/via dental unit water and aerosols), evidence of transmission is available. However, the recent results put the risks in perspective; infections related to the dental office are most likely when infection control measures are not followed meticulously.

Summary: The risk for transmission of pathogens in a dental office resulting in an infectious disease is still unknown; it seems to be limited in developed countries but it cannot be considered negligible. Therefore, maintaining high standards of infection preventive measures is of high importance for dental healthcare workers to avoid infectious diseases due to cross-contamination.

Keywords: Bacteria; Cross infection; Dental infection control; Health care associated infection; Infectious disease transmission; Viruses.

Fig. 1

Visualisation of the three main factors responsible for infection risk, visualised on three axes. Note that the values of these axes are increasing to the centre. To obtain a relative infection risk, these three factors must be multiplied, resulting in either a more serious infection risk (red colour of the sphere), a moderate infection risk (blue colour) of negligible infection risk (green colour). On the edges of the sphere, the three main factors that determine whether transmission of a pathogen results in disease are shown. Outside the sphere examples are depicted of the involved factors in dentistry