Rhondium Dental Labs is excited to introduce Rhondair – an Aerosol Capture System designed in New Zealand by local dentist turned serial inventor and entrepreneur Dr Simon McDonald.

Dentists are one of the most at-risk occupations for exposure to pathogens, including COVID-19, primarily due to the aerosol-generating nature of most dental procedures and their proximity to patients. The Rhondair is specifically designed for dental industries to reduce the harmful impacts of dental aerosols on both dental practitioners and their patients.

Rhondium was successfully awarded funding from the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment’s “COVID-19 Innovation Acceleration Fund”; a government initiative established to accelerate the development of innovative solutions to assist in fighting the global pandemic.

The key philosophy behind the Rhondair is to capture dental aerosols at the source, instead of allowing them to spread and then relying on PPE or disinfecting methods to keep patients and staff safe.

“PPE should be your last line of defence, not your first” says Rhondium Marketing Manager Fin McDonald. “It’s standard risk minimisation. If you have a hazard you can isolate and contain at the source, that’s the best approach.”

The Rhondair’s unique aerodynamic design creates a powerful draw away from a patient to capture created aerosols and incorporates single-use or sterilisable components for ideal infection control. Its enclosed medical-grade H13 HEPA filter captures 99.95% or more of all particles. This includes the size ranges that viruses, COVID-19, and dental aerosols exist within; making it more effective than all common types of medical masks, including N95 variants. The Rhondair can also be kept running when not in active use, such as between patients, to continually purify the air for added protection.

As an essential service, Rhondium Dental Labs has continued to operate throughout the March and August lockdowns in New Zealand, bringing a completely new product through conception, prototyping, development, refinement, production scaling, and to market in little more than 6 months. Rhondium is no stranger to dental research and product development, with previous inventions including the One Visit Crown in 2014 and the McDonald Matrix band in 2018.

Units are now shipping around the world, with high demand across the US and UK. Visit www.rhondium.co.uk for more information.