| Author/Editor | Lang, Andreja; Ovsenik, Maja; Verdenik, Ivan; Remškar, Maja; Oblak, Čedomir | |
| Title | Nanoparticle concentrations and composition in a dental office and dental laboratory | |
| Type | članek | |
| Publication year | 2018 | |
| Volume | str. str. | |
| ISSN | 1545-9632 - Journal of occupational and environmental hygiene | |
| Language | eng | |
| Abstract | During material treatment in dentistry particles of different size are released in the air. In order to examine the degree of particle exposure, air scanning to dental employees was performed by the Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer. The size, shape and chemical composition of particles collected with a low-pressure impactor were determined by scanning electronic microscopy and x-ray dispersive analysis. The average concentrations of nanoparticles during working periods in a clean dental laboratory (45000 to 56000 particles/cm3), in an unclean dental laboratory (28000 to 74000 particles/cm3), and in a dental office (21000 to 50000 particles/cm3), were significantly higher compared to average concentrations during nonworking periods in the clean dental laboratory (11000 to 24000 particles/cm3), unclean laboratory (14000 to 40000 particles/cm3), and dental office (13000 to 26000 particles/cm3). Peak concentration of nanoparticles in work-intensive periods were found significantly higher (up to 773000 particles/cm3), compared to the non-working periods (147000 particles/cm3) and work-less intensive periods (365000 particles/cm3).. The highest mass concentration value ranged from 8 to 23 mg/m3. X-ray dispersive analysis confirmed the presence of carbon, potassium, oxygen, iron, aluminium, zinc, silicon and phosphorus as integral elements of dental restorative materials in form of nanoparticle clusters, all smaller than 100 nm. We concluded that dental employees are exposed to nanoparticles in their working environment and are therefore potentially at risk for certain respiratory and systematic diseases. | |
| Keywords | nanoparticles dental laboratory dental materials nanodelci zobni laboratorij zobni materiali |