Investigation of the removal and dispersal of infectious agents in dental clinics

牙科诊所传染源清除和扩散的调查

• 批准号: EP/W009889/1
• 负责人: Ian Eames
• 金额: $ 51.32万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FW009889%2F1
• 关键词: Investigation; removal; dispersal; infectious; agents

Going to the dentist is a common experience with about million dental procedures undertaken each year. Since the teeth consist of some of the hardest material in the human body, its manipulation and treatment involving using high speed and high powered dental instruments including drills and ultrasonic scalers. These instruments are driven pneumatically by high speed air flows and since they generate heat (which can damage dental tissue) they are cooled with water jets. The combination of moving liquids and air near rapidly rotating/vibrating surfaces has the potential to generate large clouds of droplets and fine particles (aerosols). The health care challenge is that cloud has the potential to contain infectious agents (viruses, bacteria) removed from surfaces of the mouth and spread within a room. The science of infectious agents being created and spread is complex and there are some major gaps missing in our understanding, particularly we do not know how much of the dispersed aerosol cloud contains infectious material. In order to reduce the spreading risk, we need to improve the science of removal and dispersal in the air. This interdisciplinary study brings engineers, computational scientists, dentists, equipment manufacturers to interface together to answer many of the leading questions. The scientific outcome of the project will be translated to dental clinics through evaluation/ mitigation of the risk. This science-rich project has a pathway to impact embedded within the work programme. The pathway is created by working with clinical scientists and community dentists, who have established links to professional bodies.

看牙医是一种常见的经历，每年进行约数百万次牙科手术。由于牙齿由人体中最坚硬的材料组成，因此其操作和治疗需要使用高速和高功率的牙科器械，包括钻头和超声波洁牙机。这些仪器由高速气流气动驱动，由于它们会产生热量（可能会损坏牙齿组织），因此需要通过水射流进行冷却。快速旋转/振动表面附近的移动液体和空气的结合有可能产生大量液滴和细颗粒（气溶胶）。医疗保健面临的挑战是，云有可能含有从口腔表面清除并在房间内传播的传染源（病毒、细菌）。传染性物质的产生和传播的科学是复杂的，我们的理解中存在一些重大差距，特别是我们不知道分散的气溶胶云中有多少含有传染性物质。为了降低传播风险，我们需要提高空气中去除和扩散的科学性。这项跨学科研究将工程师、计算科学家、牙医、设备制造商聚集在一起，回答许多主要问题。该项目的科学成果将通过评估/缓解风险转化为牙科诊所。这个科学丰富的项目在工作计划中嵌入了一条产生影响的途径。该途径是通过与临床科学家和社区牙医合作创建的，他们与专业机构建立了联系。

项目成果

Impact of drops of a nanoparticle dispersion in a viscoelastic liquid

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jnnfm.2024.105221
• 发表时间: 2024-03-27
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF NON-NEWTONIAN FLUID MECHANICS
• 影响因子: 3.1
• 作者: Shende，Takshak;Eames，Ian;Moeendarbary，Emad
• 通讯作者: Moeendarbary，Emad