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

去看牙医是一种常见的经历，每年约有数百万人进行牙科手术。由于牙齿是人体中最坚硬的物质，所以它的操作和治疗需要使用高速和高功率的牙科器械，包括钻头和超声波清洗机。这些仪器是由高速气流气动驱动的，因为它们会产生热量（这会损害牙齿组织），所以它们是用水柱冷却的。在快速旋转/振动的表面附近移动的液体和空气的结合有可能产生大量的液滴和细颗粒（气溶胶）。医疗保健面临的挑战是，云有可能包含从口腔表面移除并在房间内传播的传染性病原体（病毒、细菌）。关于传染性病原体产生和传播的科学是复杂的，在我们的理解中存在一些重大空白，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。为了减少扩散的风险，我们需要改进在空气中移除和扩散的科学。这项跨学科的研究将工程师、计算科学家、牙医、设备制造商聚集在一起，共同回答许多主要问题。该项目的科学成果将通过评估/减轻风险转化到牙科诊所。这个科学含量丰富的项目在工作方案中包含了产生影响的途径。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。

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.