학술논문

The Effectiveness of a Novel Air-Barrier Device for Aerosol Reduction in a Dental Environment: Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation
Document Type
article
Source
Bioengineering, Vol 10, Iss 8, p 947 (2023)
Subject
air-barrier
aerosol
computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
contaminated particles
dental environment
Technology
Biology (General)
QH301-705.5
Language
English
ISSN
2306-5354
Abstract
The use of equipment such as dental handpieces and ultrasonic tips in the dental environment has potentially heightened the generation and spread of aerosols, which are dispersant particles contaminated by etiological factors. Although numerous types of personal protective equipment have been used to lower contact with contaminants, they generally do not exhibit excellent removal rates and user-friendliness in tandem. To solve this problem, we developed a prototype of an air-barrier device that forms an air curtain as well as performs suction and evaluated the effect of this newly developed device through a simulation study and experiments. The air-barrier device derived the improved design for reducing bioaerosols through the simulation results. The experiments also demonstrated that air-barrier devices are effective in reducing bioaerosols generated at a distance in a dental environment. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that air-barrier devices in dental environments can play an effective role in reducing contaminating particles.