Air Filtration Systems to protect Dentists from COVID

Protection of the dentist professional in a dental setting poses one of the greatest risks compared to many professions . Where else do you have a patient with mouth wide open and the dentist or hygienist breathing within 24″! The CDC Guidance for Dental Settings recommends a mirrored of procedures that will possibly reduce exposure. Taking temepartures is a good start but only stops 60% and the 40% of the Asymtematic will be allowed into the dental practice . Some of the recommendations are to move supply air vents, increase fresh air intakes by switching on the auto to manual blower switch on the thermostatic controls. Moving supply vents are almost impossible adjust thermostatic controls from Auto to Manual is a great idea . Consider utilizing HEPA air cleaners to reduce the aerosol in the patient area. Relaying on the HVAC professional to increase efficiency of the AC filter system . Many of these recommendations may help but none will absolutely stop the coronavirus from infecting the dental professional . AC professionals are just that Air Conditioning and Heating professionals they study the heating and air conditioning systems. In fact all of us in the air purification and cleaning business do not even have the same license and do not study the same text books. such as the Industrial Ventilation Guide published by the American Conference of Industrial Hygienist (ACGIH) . The CDC recommendations you can tell was written by a AC mechanical engineer who has no experience in protection from hazardous dust,fumes and or viruses . Increasing efficiency of the ac filters are difficult to say the least this will typically ice the coils unless the increase the static pressure of the blower. Moving intakes and supply air vents are difficult if not impossible . But even if you implement these changes the dental procedure allows the operator to be exposed with the CDC recommendations since the Hot Zone is still there. The only way to protect the dental personnel is to provide a physical barrier and a source capture in the ” hot zone ” which will eliminate the virus. If the barrier and negative pressure is located correctly the protection will be complete near 100% reduction of the Covid 19. A device that provides this much protection which was designed exactly for the Dental Professional is the LFK U unit with features the ULPA rated at 99.9995% efficient for micron size of .17 microns. Since the Covid 19 virus in dry form and have a size of .08-.12 microns but typically bound to an aerosol and therefore almost always is larger the ULPA filter ( Utra High Efficnecy HEPA ) is a excellent choice of filter to stop all the virus. Jeff Storey is President of Aair Purification with over 42 years in the pollution control, air purification and ventilation systems

Categorised in: Air Filter