Researchers are reporting what may be the first case ever of a dental patient coming down with a bloodborne illness from a previous patient operated on earlier.
Tests found that two patients at an unnamed dentist's office were infected by the same hepatitis B virus. They underwent surgeries about three hours apart.
Luckily, the woman who was infected later recovered.
The researchers aren't recommending any new precautions. But there is something you can do: get a hepatitis B vaccine.
Patient-to-Patient Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus Associated with Oral Surgery [JID]
