1. Dental Office Hours Air Quality By Olivia Potthoff and Abigail Shaffer
Research Question:
Is the air quality in a dentist office under regulations during office hours? Does the air quality change if people are working?
Conclusions:
By examining our results, we can conclude that our data supports our hypothesis, that during office hours and closed hours the air quality is below the federal regulatory limit for outdoor air. Our graph is very constant throughout staying at about the same limit of mg/^3. There is a drastic peak in our graph around 4 PM and I consulted with the owner of the dental practice to seek answers. I was told that the office technically closes at 3:30 PM each day and at 4 the dentist starts to mill implants that will be used for the next day. The machine that is used sprays high pressure water in an enclosed case to create an implant from a titanium alloy. That machine is what caused a spike in the air quality. However, implants aren’t made everyday, only when a patient coming in the next day needs one. They are only special occasions. The results that we have support our hypothesis because the air quality never exceeded the regulated air quality value (0.035 mg/m^3) and remained safe and healthy to work in, even when the implant machine was running. Our result is significant in supporting the idea that dentist offices are safe for employees and their patients.
Methods:
We used the DustTrak air quality meter to collect the air quality of a dentist office during office hours and during closed hours. We sampled the air from 7 AM to 7 AM (24 hours) on February 27, We placed the meter in the seralization room, shown below, to collect data. This room is centrally located between five properties where hygienists work, fillings are made, and implants are surgically input. As you can see the sterilization room has a lot of equipment running to make sure each instrument is clean and ready to use for the next patient. The independent variable is the time of day, office hours or closed, and the dependent variable is the amount of PM particles measured. Our controlled variables included the location of the DustTrak and the constant running of the sterilizing tools.
Background Information:
What is the reason for your interest in this area? We found interest in this area because a member of our group’s parents own a dentist office and we were curious on seeing if the quality of air decreased throughout the day.
What is it meant by PM 2.5? PM 2.5 is a fine particulate matter and an air pollutant that can cause health concerns for people when levels in the air are high. These particles reduce visibility and cause the air to appear hazy when levels are high. PM, aka particulate matter, is a measure of the mixture of solids and liquids floating through the air and is used to test air quality. 2.5 is the size of the particular particles we are discussing.
What in the air causes PM 2.5? What are the sources of PM 2.5? Causes in the air of PM 2.5 include roadside vehicle emissions, dust, ash, and seaspray. If these particles get into your lungs they can potentially cause serious health problems later on in life. The sources of PM 2.5 include sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, fireplaces, car engines, and coal/natural gas power plants. PM 2.5 comes primarily from combustion sources that we use in our everyday lives.
Describe the size of a PM 2.5 particle. Compare it to something in our world. The size of a PM 2.5 particle is 2.5 micrometers. There are 1,000 micrometers in a millimeter and 10,000 micrometers in a centimeter. In comparison, a human hair is about 70 micrometers in diameter, making a particle about 30 times smaller than the average human hair.
What is the EPA limit for PM 2.5? The EPA limit for PM 2.5 is mg/m^3. This is also equivalent to 12 micrograms per cubic meter.
What are the health concerns related to PM 2.5? Health concerns involving PM 2.5 are heart conditions, such as heart attacks, and respiratory effects, such as asthma attacks and bronchitis. Small particles can enter the bloodstream, through the lungs and cause damaging effects to the body.
What percent of time do we spend indoors? Americans spend around 90% of their life indoors. The concentration of pollutants inside is 2 to 5 times higher than outside. Some of these pollutants include radon, tobacco smoke, stoves, heaters, and fireplaces.
Operatory Room
Sterilization Room
Improvements:
Some ways to improve this air quality experiment we conducted is to locate the meter in a different spot. Because I had the meter run during office hours, I couldn’t put it in a opertory, that would disturb the patient and their experience at the dentist. I choose to place the air meter in the sterilization room near all five opertories. It is centrally located, but in order to collect the best data the meter should have been placed in an operatory. Another improvement we can make to this project is we could have chosen a day when the dentist was setting implants, a surgical components that support a crown or bridge in someones mouth, to see if the tools used to place them in someones mouth produces any form of PM, and if it does how much. Also we can measure the air in different dentist offices to compare. We could place an air meter in the orthodontist office and different dentist offices throughout the valley to see which office has better air quality.
References:
Helmis, C G, et al. “Indoor Air Quality in a Dentistry Clinic.” The Science of the Total Environment, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 15 May 2007,
“Indoor Air Quality (IAQ).” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 16 May 2019,
Célia A. Alves. “Indoor Air Quality in Two University Sports Facilities .” Taiwan Association for Aerosol Research, 2013.
Results:
Start of Test Date
02/27/2019
Start of Test Time
7:56:19 AM
End of Test Date
02/28/2019
End of Test Time
7:00:19 AM
Minimum
Maximum
0.035
Average
0.004
Hypothesis:
Our Hypothesis is during office hours and non-office hours at a dental office the air quality is under the regulated air quality value (0.035 mg/m^3) for outdoor air. With the use of the different instruments throughout the day and all the sterilizing happening, some may think the air quality in the oppertories may be exceeding the limits. We plan on showing that throughout the dental office the air quality is good and healthy for the patients who are apart of the practice.