Fig. 5.

Clinical bioaerosol collection from 9 different locations (a) and only 10.5–21.1% of patients showed positive bioaerosol protein contamination (b). a Locations 1 and 2 represent the dentist located at 30 cm away from the patient’s mouth; locations 3 and 4 represent the dental assistant at 40 cm away from the patient’s left side; locations 5 and 6 represent the patient’s chest at 20 cm away from patient’s mouth; location 7 represents the dental suction unit at 90 cm away from the patient’s mouth; location 8 represents the dental bracket tray at 80 cm away at the patient’s left side; and location 9 represents a storage area on the side of the room located 200 cm away from the patient’s mouth on the patient’s right side. b Dot plot graph showed positive bioaerosol protein contamination for those who showed positive bioaerosol contamination that was above the background at various locations. Only 10.5% - 21.1% of patients showed positive bioaerosol contamination at any particular site. For instance, compared to the background negative controls, 4 out of 19 patients at location 1 produced bioaerosol protein contamination. The protein content of 2.5 μL of whole saliva from each patient (right of dotted line) was included as a reference, demonstrating that there was significant protein content in even small amount of saliva (2.5 µL), albeit this was variable between different patients. Each coloured dot point indicates an individual. Y aixs values = the protein quantity at each location from each patient – background negative control. Data are displayed as mean ± SD