Variation of Efficacy of Filtering Face Pieces Respirators over Time in a Dental Setting: A Pilot Study
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Department of Surgery, Medicine, Dentistry and Morphological Sciences—Unit of Dentistry and Oral-Maxillo-Facial Surgery, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 41125 Modena, Italy
2
Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences—Unit of Dentistry, University of Bologna, 40100 Bologna, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Gabriel Krastl and Andrea Scribante
Dent. J. 2021, 9(4), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/dj9040036
Received: 27 January 2021
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Revised: 17 March 2021
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Accepted: 19 March 2021
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Published: 24 March 2021
Since aerosol continuously persists in dental settings, where different procedures and patients come in succession, the use of oronasal masks is highly recommended. Among them, respirators known as Filtering Face Pieces (FFP) show a protective superiority compared to surgical masks. Even concerning respirators classified as non-reusable, it is not known how many hours of use are necessary to compromise their filtering capacity. The aim of this study is to investigate the variations of filtering capacity of an FFP2 respirator over time, in order to safely optimize the timing of its use. Five respirators were worn by the same operator during clinical activity for different usage times (8, 16, 24, 32, 40 h), and one respirator was kept unused. All respirators underwent a bacterial filtration efficacy (BFE) test. T-test for paired data with Bootstrap technique and Wilcoxon test for paired data compared BFE values of the five tested FFP2s respectively at each time, and the areas with the corresponding values of the control respirator (FFp2-F). A generalized linear mixed effect model (GLM) was applied considering type of respirator and time as fixed effects and intercept as random effect. No significant statistical differences were present in the BFE of each time. Data obtained by the present study highlight the important ability of FFP2s to maintain their BFE over time, suggesting a long lasting protective function.
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Keywords:
personal protective equipment; mask; respirator; FFP2; aerosol spread; environmental contamination; BFE
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MDPI and ACS Style
Checchi, V.; Montevecchi, M.; Checchi, L. Variation of Efficacy of Filtering Face Pieces Respirators over Time in a Dental Setting: A Pilot Study. Dent. J. 2021, 9, 36. https://doi.org/10.3390/dj9040036
AMA Style
Checchi V, Montevecchi M, Checchi L. Variation of Efficacy of Filtering Face Pieces Respirators over Time in a Dental Setting: A Pilot Study. Dentistry Journal. 2021; 9(4):36. https://doi.org/10.3390/dj9040036
Chicago/Turabian StyleChecchi, Vittorio, Marco Montevecchi, and Luigi Checchi. 2021. "Variation of Efficacy of Filtering Face Pieces Respirators over Time in a Dental Setting: A Pilot Study" Dentistry Journal 9, no. 4: 36. https://doi.org/10.3390/dj9040036
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