Dental face masks!

Re: Dental face masks!

Angiy Michael — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:52:25 GMT

You should always wear them to prevent inhaling aerosol and also H&S advise goggles as best practice ..have seen people with nasty dental procedure related eye probs..know they steam up and are uncomfortable but it makes sense to use the, All the best practice CPD I have had advises using "nusiance " spray painting style masks..the normal surgical ones just let too much aerosol in and are too likely to get penetrated by moisture. When I used to do a lot of dental work I also used to keep a pack of hygiene facial wipes ( although most types will do ) as well and use one after each procedure..I found you used to get a fine coating ( not visible) of dental aerosol on your skin however careful you were and this was more comfortable and used to get lots of spots when having dental work heavy weeks before I did this..I can't prove it helps but just found it did

Re: Dental face masks!

Sandra Taylor RVN, MBVNA — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:04:12 GMT

DEf wear a mask, I forgot a couple of times when assisting with dentals, and ended up with a very sore throat twice.

Re: Dental face masks!

lskm 23 — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:25:28 GMT

Hi,

we wear masks when doing dental and get told to leave the room if we are doing other things and not wearing one.

Are masks not worn when doing surgery? As if they are I would just use those when doing dentals. Dont worry about looking stupid better to look stupid than damage your health.

My boss would go mad if we didnt wear masks, they are part of the standard PPE in practice

Try talking to your senior/head nurse or just bring it up with your boss. What do other people think in the practice?

Re: Dental face masks!

LaurenA — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:19:57 GMT

Thanks for all of your help and advice, much appreciated as always! Mentioned it to the gung-ho locum this week and he did say I had a point but that normal cardboard facemasks are rendered uselss after 40s of breathing on them?!!

Once my boss comes back I will raise the point with her about health and safety.

Thanks!!

Lauren

Re: Dental face masks!

SharonSP — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 22:05:35 GMT

I agree. I am sure we have all seen some horrendous mouths booked in for dental treatment and if the bacteria ridden aerosol droplets are anywhere near you, you are asking for trouble not wearing a mask.
I agree with 'little demona', it is your health and safety and you should take ownership for that, it doesnt matter what you look like and who knows, maybe it needs someone to lead the way and all other members of staff will start wearing them too!

Re: Dental face masks!

Charlotte says smile — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:03:58 GMT

100% agree with what everyone has said I think you should insist on having facemasks if they wont buy you any then i think i would buy my own to use. I have never done a dental without a facemask and when we had none left once i refused to do, as did all the other nurses so it ended up being two vets who werent bothered about wearing masks doing it! They both went down with toncilitis the next week adn they were the only ones to get it! I dont think its conincidence!

Re: Dental face masks!

Faye Sewell — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:02:24 GMT

They are not that expensive so surely it shouldnt be a problem!? We use them all the time!

Re: Dental face masks!

Anneke Kuipers — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:33:22 GMT

[quote user="LaurenA"]

Dont want to come in and stir things up, but do think it's really bad.

Maybe I should get my mum (human nurse) to get me some facemasks, however dont want to be the only pernickity one wearing one since I dont actually do dentals myself but just assist. Might look a bit strange if I insist and my boss who is actually doing the dental doesn't have one on!

We did lots of canine extractions and bad mouths last week and I did feel sick/ weazy all of last week (I'm asthmatic). Maybe I should bring up that point?

[/quote]

In the end it is YOUR health you're thinking about and I think that is more important than looking like the 'odd' one!
And especially if you're asmatic AND you've noticed the dental had bad effect on your health I would go for looking a bit silly

Re: Dental face masks!

LaurenA — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:30:50 GMT

Eugh :( I knew it was bad but I was in denial!! thanks for all of your replies, especially Nick, maybe I should print that bit out and show to boss? But surely vets know themselves the risks to both them and their staff? Dont want to come in and stir things up, but do think it's really bad.

We did lots of canine extractions and bad mouths last week and I did feel sick/ weazy all of last week (I'm asthmatic). Maybe I should bring up that point?

Any ideas on the way forward? Dont want to cause a fuss in such a samll palce but it is health and safety.

Thanks again,

Lauren x

Re: Dental face masks!

Louise B — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:51:23 GMT

Totally agree Sal. I wear glasses and hate wearing face masks as then the glasses steam up and my dentals take twice as long as anyone else's. thus I started skipping the facemask. Shortly afterwards, I did a dental on a yorkie with a horrendous mouth. The next day I felt sick, the day after I was running a fever and had a sore throat/gums/tongue. By the next day my gums were swollen, oozing pus and bleeding and the only thing I could eat was ice-cream. I was off work for almost a week and, as a self-employed locum with no sickness cover, lost alot of money.

Re: Dental face masks!

Sal the 1st — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:25:23 GMT

I have only ever participated in 1 dental without a facemask. That dental resulted in me losing my voice for almost a year and a half, partial paralysis of the vocal cords and erosion through infection of the false vocal cords. Now whenever I get the slightest cold I lose my voice ALWAYS ALWAYS use a mask - dont take the chance! and dont bother with those little paper tissue see through things , the best thing you can do with those is use them to blow your nose!

Re: Dental face masks!

Nick Shackleton — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:00:49 GMT

you know you can buy face masks that have a combined visor attached to it. I always thought that it was H & S too. (as no longer doing dentals).

taken from an abstract about effeciency of face masks:

Face masks greatly reduce the risk of dental care workers’inhaling aerosols from patients’ airways, which can containpathogenic microorganisms related to diseases ranging from influenzato tuberculosis, meningitis or even severe acute respiratorysyndrome. Such aerosols also contain large quantities of saliva,microorganisms, blood, tooth particles and restorative materials.¹^–⁶High-speed, air-driven dental handpieces and ultrasonic scalersproduce large amounts of aerosol and spatter,¹^–⁶ includingvisible and invisible particles, the latter ranging in diameterfrom 50 micrometers to submicron sizes.⁷^–⁹ Particulatematter in the 1- to 5-µm range is considered the mosthazardous because it can reach the terminal bronchioli and nonciliatedalveoli.¹⁰^,¹¹ It has been reported that 95 percent of the particlesmeasure less than 5 µm in diameter; 75 percent of theseare contaminated by microorganisms.¹² Furthermore, the particlesare concentrated mainly within 2 meters of the patient, wherethey easily can be inhaled by dental operators.¹³^,¹⁴ For thesereasons, use of surgical face masks in dentistry has been advocatedto protect clinicians from inhaling aerosols containing organicor inorganic particulates, and also to protect the patient frompossible contamination from the dental operator.

http://jada.ada.org/cgi/content/full/136/7/877

Re: Dental face masks!

Faye Sewell — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:32:15 GMT

[quote user="Jojo"]

Def a health and safety must have - along with goggles / safety glasses and gloves.

[/quote]

HEAR HEAR!!

Re: Dental face masks!

Jo Hinde — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:55:17 GMT

Def a health and safety must have - along with goggles / safety glasses and gloves.

Re: Dental face masks!

loobylou — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:00:19 GMT

Im pretty sure you have to provide them for health and safety. Is your practice a member of the practice standards scheme? Im pretty sure this is on their checklist when inspecting pratices.