Simulation of a vacuum helmet to contain pathogen-bearing droplets in dental and otolaryngologic outpatient interventions

Jia, Dongjie; Lee Baker, Jonathan; Rameau, Anaïs; Esmaily, Mahdi

Clinic encounters of dentists and otolaryngologists inherently expose these specialists to an enhanced risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection, thus threatening them, their patients, and their practices. In this study, we propose and simulate a helmet design that could be used by patients to minimize the transmission risk by retaining droplets created through coughing. The helmet has a port for accessing the mouth and nose and another port connected to a vacuum source to prevent droplets from exiting through the access port and contaminating the environment or clinical practitioners. We used computational fluid dynamics in conjunction with Lagrangian point-particle tracking to simulate droplet trajectories when a patient coughs while using this device. A range of droplet diameters and different operating conditions were simulated. The results show that 100% of the airborne droplets and 99.6% of all cough droplets are retained by the helmet.