| Summary: | Occupational hazards linked to dental practice are not a recent problem. In this study, the researchers quantified airborne microbial load in clinical environment during routine dental treatment and evaluated the microbial contamination in dental unit water line system (DUWLs) in Citrine and Zircon clinics. Air was sampled using settled plate method. The difference in the contamination level between the different clinical environments and the rooms where there was no treatment done was statistically significant (P<0.05). At the end of treatment, operative had the highest bacterial contamination (38 ± 8 CFU/m3) maybe due to the active usage of high-speed handpieces and scaler, while oral surgery had the lowest bacterial contamination (14±3 CFU/m3). The results for the microbial contamination of DUWLs in Zircon and Citrine clinic were not statistically significant (P>0.05). The highest bacterial count was from air-water syringe (60 CFU/mL) but was far below the recommendation from the American Dental Association (>200 CFU/mL) and it was of drinking water quality. © 2018 Malaysian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. All rights reserved.
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