Aerosols in Dentistry

The advent of COVID-19 brought about changes in the way that we managed the environment in the dental operatory. COVID-19 is a respiratory disease, and most dental procedures create varying degrees of aerosol by nature of the procedure. The problem can be broken into two aspects: prevention and management. Prevention would be directed to the oral cavity and reduction of bacterial and viral load. The aerosol would be far less virulent. Management would encompass those engineering and methods by which we might limit the aerosol and prevent the spread of the aerosol. Intraoral devices such as the dental dam can be used to isolate the operating area. Extraoral evacuators were used to suction away the aerosol that was created. The combination of prevention and management was very effective in managing the aerosol. This chapter will discuss these various methods and their efficacy.