Effectiveness of air cleaner on mitigating the transmission of COVID-19 disease in a dental clinic environment

The possible transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in dental hospitals due to the large amounts of bioaerosol production during dental procedures is a serious concern in the dentistry community. This paper examines how to effectively deploy air cleaners to reduce the infection risk in a dental clinic. The dispersion of bioaerosol is studied through numerical simulations, and risk assessment is performed by a dose response method. It is found that patients downstream of the background ventilation have a higher infection risk than patients adjacent to the infected patient. When the air cleaner is turned on, although large amount of bioaerosol is removed, leading to a reduced infection risk in general, however, the risk increases in some cases, depending on the location of air cleaner. The situation is similar regardless of a higher CADR. This work can provide useful guidelines for dental hospitals to prevent the transmission of infectious respiratory diseases.