We recently got a somewhat panicked call from a dental office, explaining that one of their patients who had been treated there the previous day, was told that he has Tuberculosis (TB). The practice was very concerned that everyone in the office, both employees and patients in the waiting room may have been exposed to TB. We advised the office to find out if the patient was diagnosed to have a new TB infection (diagnosed by a skin test) or active TB disease (diagnosed by a chest x-ray or a test of a sputum sample). As it turns out, the patient only had a positive skin test. People who are not sick have what is called latent TB infection. People who have latent TB infection do not feel sick, do not have any symptoms, and cannot spread TB to others. But, some people with latent TB infection go on to get TB disease (sometimes many years later). So, the message to the office was good - no TB exposure to anyone in the office. Note that the overall risk of Tuberculosis exposures in dental settings is considered very low. The possibility of an infectious disease exposure (e.g. Chicken pox, Mumps, Measles, Rubella, Pertussis, TB) in the dental office needs to be dealt with swiftly and professionally. Please feel free to call dds anytime a consultation is needed: blog@dynamicdentalsafety.com or toll free (888) 669-8846 ext. 701Sunday, March 18, 2007
Tuberculosis Exposures
We recently got a somewhat panicked call from a dental office, explaining that one of their patients who had been treated there the previous day, was told that he has Tuberculosis (TB). The practice was very concerned that everyone in the office, both employees and patients in the waiting room may have been exposed to TB. We advised the office to find out if the patient was diagnosed to have a new TB infection (diagnosed by a skin test) or active TB disease (diagnosed by a chest x-ray or a test of a sputum sample). As it turns out, the patient only had a positive skin test. People who are not sick have what is called latent TB infection. People who have latent TB infection do not feel sick, do not have any symptoms, and cannot spread TB to others. But, some people with latent TB infection go on to get TB disease (sometimes many years later). So, the message to the office was good - no TB exposure to anyone in the office. Note that the overall risk of Tuberculosis exposures in dental settings is considered very low. The possibility of an infectious disease exposure (e.g. Chicken pox, Mumps, Measles, Rubella, Pertussis, TB) in the dental office needs to be dealt with swiftly and professionally. Please feel free to call dds anytime a consultation is needed: blog@dynamicdentalsafety.com or toll free (888) 669-8846 ext. 701
