Dental health has improved dramatically with falling rates of tooth decay and attention has now shifted to the needs of an ageing population, with an increased emphasis upon aesthetics – that is, having a full set of sparkling white teeth. Therefore, dental technologists spend much of their time in the lab creating cosmetic dental prostheses such as crowns and implants. This work creates dust and chemical fumes. Without proper protection, exposure to these may risk the health of the dental technologist.

The processes involved in building any kind of dental prosthesis have a number of stages where there is a potential health hazard to the dental technologist. First, the dentist makes a mould of the patient’s mouth or teeth which the dental technologist uses to make a plaster model. This is used to make up a metal framework for the prosthesis onto which porcelain is overlaid, using a sandblasting technique, dental air polisher. After baking the metal-porcelain layers, there is grinding to achieve the required shape.

This series of operations encompasses not just exposure to chemical hazards, which will be discussed elsewhere, but also the generation of dust particles of various compositions and sizes. Research has shown us that the dust from the types of materials that are used in dental technology contain between 54-70 per cent of respirable particles (that is, particles of less than 5 microns in size that enter the lungs). A particular concern is the silica content of this dust, which can reach 30 per cent and may exceed maximum recommended levels during the sandblasting and grinding processes. Another is exposure to dusts from heavy metals like the cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloys. Both exposures may lead to a lung condition known as pneumoconiosis, of which several cases have been reported as being linked to dental technology.

Of particular concern are the ultra-fine particles (UFPs) which have a size in the nano range – that is less than 0.1 microns, or 100 nanometres. A recent study analysed the size range of particle which dental technologists may come into contact with during the course of their work. A number of blocks of composites used in dental prostheses were ground and the dust thus generated analysed. All of the composites released a certain amount of respirable dust. The size range of this dust extended down to the UFP level, showing that a potential health hazard exists in the dental laboratory setting ( dental laboratory equipment ).

The good news is that it is very easy for dental technologists to capture much of this dust pollution before being inhaled. High quality dental technician air cleaning systems can make a significant improvement to air quality and help to create a healthier and cleaner work environment.