Can a small cut by a dentist's tool infected with HIV transmit the virus?

Answer 1

Only if there is HIV-contaminated blood on the tool. For example, if a tool the dentist was using cut an HIV infected patient, and their blood remained on the tool when the dentist was treating you, you will become infected if you ingest it.

Answer 2

Dentists take precautions against this, but it is possible.

More detail:

Yes, which is why dentists and dental assistants/technichans now wear the protective face shields, as well as gloves when working on a patient, which protects them and the patients.

If the dentist works on a patient with HIV or AIDS, he can catch it from them if he has a cut on his finger, or if the patient were to sneeze, spraying saliva and/or mucus in the dentist's eyes or any cut on his face.

Patients can also catch it from a dentist who is infected with the virus. In the 1980's, a young woman, whose name was Kimberly Bergalis, contracted the virus from her dentist who was infected with it.

After she contracted the virus from her dentist, she was at the forefront fighting on behalf of all patients for dentists and dental assistants/technicians to wear gloves and face protection. She died a few years after contracting AIDS, but her fight for protection from HIV/AIDS has helped prevent untold numbers of people from contracting the virus from their dentist, and protect the dentist at the same time.