Absolutely! The Rhondair system is designed to be operable by one person, making it an excellent choice for hygienists who are typically operating single-handedly.

While this differs by country, the CDC (USA), the FDGP (UK), the ADA (AU), and the NZDA (NZ) are all in general agreeance in the wake of COVID-19 when it comes to dental aerosols, with the message being to reduce their creation and spread as much as possible.

The conversation about COVID related liability is also happening around the world as dental practices and offices reopen. With increasing momentum towards treating the virus as any other health and safety risk to be removed, controlled, or minimised where possible, the resulting caveat for management and owners is becoming clear: Negligence = liability.

Yes it can! The Rhondair provides ongoing pathogen and general splatter protection. Diseases such as influenza, the common cold, TB, and streptococcal, as well as contaminated biological material can all be spread through normal aerosol creating operations.

Short staffing or appointment deferrals can be devastating for even large practices. Within a typical dental practice, preventing just a single day of income loss due to staff sickness will outweigh the cost of a freestanding unit.

The Rhondair is powerful enough that it can also double as an investment in a negative pressure room system. We are currently working on a venting kit for the Rhondair, ask us about it.

The detachable funnel can be cleaned in an autoclave, a dishwasher, or via cold sterilisation. The hose on the unit can be disinfected and is replaceable.

When changing the HEPA filter, it is recommended to wear at a minimum single-use gloves and eye protection. The filter should be removed and disposed of in standard hazardous medical waste facilities. New filters simply slide into place.

At the beginning of each procedure, patients need to be instructed to cough or sneeze directly into the funnel, if they feel the need. In-house testing shows that the Rhondair system is very effective, as long as the cough or sneeze is aimed directly at the funnel.

Many other aerosol capture systems have a large portable box and a rigid evacuation tube or hose. The large box is either positioned to the left of the chair and interferes with the dental assistant’s access, or it is positioned to the right of the dental chair and impedes access to the instrumentation tray/arm and has to be moved away while the patient sits down or gets up. In contrast, the Rhondair system can be positioned to the left of the chair near the patient’s feet or it can be mounted on the wall or in the ceiling.  The funnel and hose are very light and can easily be placed on the patient bib after the chair is set in the supine position.

If the patient needs to rinse, they can hold the funnel or the dentist can hold it for the few moments required.

Visual clarity and strong reflected light (from the overhead dental light) were both important issues that we identified during the development of the Rhondair system. To overcome these issues the Rhondair shield can be positioned to allow direct intra-oral vision and the angle of the shield reflects light away from the dentist.

The shields are changeable per patient, simply unclip the shield from the funnel cone and replace.
The funnels are detachable from the ducting and are washable items.
The duct cover sleeves are simply slid over the ducting and removed after each patient.
The ducts are replaceable and can also be removed for cleaning in a bucket of hot soapy water.
The HEPA filter slides out of place with the top cover of the unit removed.

The filter should be changed every 6 months or after 400 hours of operation.