Managing Aerosols in the Dental Office is Not a New Idea!

The simplest way to prevent aerosol generation in the dental office is to use equipment that does not generate aerosols. For dental hygienists, during the COVID-19 pandemic this has meant little to no use of ultrasonic scaling equipment, a greater reliance on hand scaling and an increased risk of hand and wrist fatigue. The AeroPro Cordless Prophy Handpiece System is one solution.

A Safer Way to Polish: Splatter Guard Prophy Angles from Young Innovations

As dentists and hygienists question the use of ultrasonic instruments during the COVID-19 pandemic, they may also be looking for ways to eliminate or at least control aerosols and splatter. Young Innovations recently introduced the Splatter Guard® prophy angle, which nearly eliminates airborne particles during prophylaxis polishing. Whitney Howerton, MDH, RDH, gives Splatter Guard a test run.

Failure to replace: Who pays the ultimate price?

The current recommendation for when to replace a scaler is when 20% of the instrument blade width or length is reduced or no longer the original design. But how long it takes for each instrument to reach this threshold is dependent on several factors. Deb (Hume) Brown, RDH, shares some of these factors and how a failure to replace instruments can affect the clinician and the patient.