Pulmonary Alterations Among Workers in a Dental Prosthesis Laboratory: Exploring High Dust Concentrations and Novel Findings of Bacterial Genera in the Workplace to Achieve Improved Control.

Objective: To evaluate the pulmonary alterations in workers from a dental prosthesis laboratory and explore dust and bacterial dissemination generated in the laboratory.

Methods: Spirometry and computerized axial tomography were performed on 67 workers. Dust in workplace air was determined using the filtration-gravimetric method, and bacterial detection was explored using 16S rDNA gene sequencing.