[Question #1723] Dentist (drill cleaning needle turbine access to blood stream from teeth )
92 months ago
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
92 months ago
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Welcome to the Forum. On our Forum all questions regarding herpes go to Ms. Warren and Dr. Handsfield and I split all other questions. As it happened, today I happened to pick up your question. As an FYI, having worked closely for more than 35 years, Dr. Handsfield and I never disagree on the content of our replies although our verbal styles vary. I will be addressing this question today.
HIV is not transmitted in dentists offices when dentists follow recommended procedures. The only instance in which a dentist has transmitted HIV to a patient was a sad case over 20 years ago when a dentist with HIV intentionally transmitted infection to a patient. Otherwise all dental procedures are safe and do not put you at risk for HIV as dentists take careful precautions to clean their tools between patients. In answer to your specific questions:
1. Dental drills are carefully cleaned between patients and therefore are not a risk for transmission of HIV or other infection.
2. Teeth cannot be penetrated by HIV so if the virus were somehow to contact teeth, there would still not be a risk for HIV acquisition.
3. No, infection has not occurred in the way you suggest.
4. In many dental procedures there is sometimes some bleeding which occurs as part of the procedures so if the dentist did not follow recommended procedures and precautions, there is a theoretical risk for infection. The fact however is that dentists are careful about such things and infection has not occurred in this way.
I hope these replies are helpful to you. As long as your dentist is a trained professional who uses recommended precautions, there is no reason to worry about exposure to HIV from going to the dentist for any sort of procedure.
Having read both these questions and your earlier interaction with Dr. Handsfield, I need to suggest that you are worried more about acquisition of HIV form medical and dental procedures than is appropriate. Health professionals take great caution and receive special training to avoid any risk for HIV transmission. EWH
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92 months ago
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
92 months ago
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1. It is believed that the infection that occurred 20 years ago was through intentional injection of infected material into a patient, not from unclean dental equipment.
2. Correct. The enamel which covers the teeth is not susceptible to HIV.
3. Correct, solid needles do not have holes where blood can accumulate.
4. We do not look at pictures on this forum as they are often misleading. Further, no one on this Forum is an expert on dental equipment. No need to send the picture.
5. As noted above, solid (as opposed to hollow) needles typically can not carry blood or materials forward from patient to patient.
As I said above, I think your fears are misplaced and urge you to relax and move forward. EWH.
92 months ago
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
92 months ago
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Final answers
1. Yes, that is a reasonable assumption.
2. Yes, I encourage you to forget about risk associated with dental instruments
3. There is no risk for infection from the suction equipment in the dentists office.
4. I would urge you to stay off the internet. there is much misinformation there.
5. There is no reason for you to worry about infection with HIV form receipt of injections in licensed medical facilities
The procedures you describe should be safe and should not worry you about acquiring HIV.
Finally, our site does not encourage or endorse anxiety based questions about HIV. It is time for you to move on and not worry further about the sorts of questions you have asked of Dr. Handsfield and me. Please note that the
forum does not permit repeated anxiety driven questions by the same users. This
will have to be your last one; future new questions on this topic will be
deleted without reply and without refund of your posting fee. This policy is based
on compassion, not criticism, and is designed to reduce temptations to keep
paying for questions with obvious answers; because experience shows that
continued answers tends to simply prolong such anxieties, when the real answer
normally should be professional counseling; and because such questions have
little educational value for other users, one of the forum's main purposes. I
trust you will understand. Take care. EWH