The effectiveness of the X-Dent Box (dust collector box) in collecting trimming dust from different types of dental prostheses materials in Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) dental laboratory

Abstract

Trimming and polishing dental prostheses is a regular procedure conducted in dental laboratory. The dust that produced during trimming process has high hazard risk especially when it is exposed to dental technician in a long duration. X-Dent Box is invented as a protective equipment to reduce indoor air pollution by collecting the dust from exposing in dental laboratory thus protecting them. The aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of the X-Dent Box in collecting dust from different type of dental prostheses materials during trimming process. Trimming procedure was performed for 4 minutes on five different types of common dental prostheses materials used in dental laboratory which are Plaster of Paris (PoP), dental stone (DS), resin special tray (RST), cold cure acrylic (ACC) and heat cure arcylic (HCA). The procedure is repeated 3 times for each sample using X-Dent Box and without X-Dent Box being attached to the vacuum. The collected dust in the vacuum bag and X-Dent Box was measured by weight. Data was then analysed. All types of dental prosthesis materials showed more than 60% (n:5) of dust been collected using X-Dent Box. The percentage of dust collected using X-Dent Box is between 65-90% as compared to without the box which only 20%-50%. The dust material that is most effective to the least effective collected by X-Dent box is PoP=CCA (90%) > HCA (85%) > DS (73%) > TRS (65%). There is no significant difference of dust collected with X-Dent Box (p= 0.056) compared to without the usage of X-Dent Box and on the effectiveness of X-Dent Box usage in comparing between different type of materials (p=0.406).