HSV-2 infection maybe

[dent1234]

I am a dentist, and yesterday I was cleaning a tooth with a blunt probe. The probe had not touched any tissue except the tooth. Unfortunately it slipped and pinged my finger through my glove. There was no bleeding, but you could see a tiny mark where it had hit.

The patient has a history of genital herpes, but I dont know which type, and she is also on Valtrex. There were no obvious herpes signs in her mouth, and the probe was on a fairly dried tooth, not in a pool of saliva. The patient has no other issues, no HIV or HEP.

I immediately washed the finger in alcohol, and bandaged with chlorhexidine.

My thoughts are that if she has HSV-2 then I should be OK, but not so clear if it was HSV-1 that infects her genitals.

Any feedback would be appreciated

[gracefromHHP]

Genital herpes is absolutely not a risk for you from this. If the patient had oral herpes and was actively shedding the virus there was a risk of you contracting herpes whitlow but that's it.

Did you fill out an incident report about it?

grace

[daisy315]

It is my opinion that Herpes cannot be transmitted in this way regardless if it were HSV1 or 2 ......  for the most part there has to be significant skin to skin contact with Herpes lesions or the Infected area ...... If it was so easily transmissable to Dentists then I'm sure any such risk would have been made very clear during your studies to become a Dentist.
On the basis that you have not been given any special education on this I would say your risk was negligible if in fact there was any risk at all.

Daisy