Some infections are directly linked to dental practice, in which dental surgeons are exposed to a wide variety of microorganisms present in patients' oral and body fluids. Biosafety is a multidisciplinary science that emphasizes actions to prevent, reduce or eliminate risks inherent to the activity. The purpose of this literature review is to identify the main forms of transmission of infectious diseases, locate common errors regarding the set of conducts and technical measures employed by dental professionals, describing the complications resulting from failures in the protection mechanisms as well as demonstrating the evolution of biosafety in the last twenty years and its relation to the clinical-dental scope. To carry out this study, 19 scientific articles published between 1999 and 2019 were searched, with the descriptors: Contamination of biological risks; Dentistry; Communicable diseases. Articles in Portuguese and English were filtered in the GOOGLE ACADÊMICO, SCIELO, BIREME, LILACS databases. The results demonstrate the importance of the dentist's knowledge of the risk of cross-contamination, in addition to compliance with biosafety standards in public and private institutions.