Thoracic complications of dental surgical procedures: hazards of the dental drill.
METHODS
Dental surgical procedures occasionally result in intrathoracic complications that may subsequently be encountered by clinicians. We report four patients with such complications, including pneumomediastinum, fatal descending necrotizing mediastinitis, and Lemierre's syndrome. In each of these patients, the commonly used dental handpiece with exhausted air directed to the working drill point was an important, but unrecognized, predisposition to their intrathoracic complication.


CONCLUSIONS
Clinicians should be aware of the spectrum of these problems and, in particular, of the potential hazards of pressurized nonsterile air blown into open surgical sites by the dental drill.
Ely
E W
EW
Department of Medicine, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157-1054.
Stump
T E
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Hudspeth
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AS
Haponik
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EF
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003762:Dental Instruments / Q000009:adverse effects*; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012390:Root Canal Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000295:instrumentation; D013896:Thoracic Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D014081:Tooth Extraction / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000295:instrumentation