Therefore, dental staff are required to follow proper handwashing and to use gloves, masks, jackets, and eyewear known as personal protection equipment PPE. New gloves and masks should be donned for each patient. Following stringent procedures and complying with all regulations safeguard and protect patients and dental staff. Bacteria are among the fastest growing organisms in the world.
They can also carry several diseases and illnesses, some of which can be deadly. When you consider how many patients we see every day, infection control is a massive undertaking. I suspect many patients are unaware of the lengths their dental practices go to protect them. Infection control is central to our practice, from the layout of the surgery, to managing our dental team. For instance, it is a core part of our induction training and I also engage an external trainer to visit the practice each year to ensure our processes are up to date.
The toughest challenge is probably managing the time it takes to implement infection control procedures because they take up a significant chunk of each day. As well as spending the time I need with every patient and writing up my records from each appointment, I have to make sure the surgery is 'as new' when the next patient enters the room.
There's also no escaping the fact that infection control is expensive. It's one area of dentistry that requires a large budget to stay compliant.
We have to maintain expensive equipment to manufacturers' guidelines. And we have to buy more instruments to use to compensate for the downtime when other sets are being decontaminated and sterilised. Infection control is about protecting patients and that is core to being a caring dental professional, even though it is challenging both financially and time-wise in a busy dental practice. The Health and Social Care Board has a duty to commission services which meet required decontamination standards, and performance manage new and problem practices.
It included an outline of how inspectors from the RQIA would assess practices' infection control arrangements although a detailed inspection framework is expected. The standards differ in several respects from England. For example, a separate decontamination room is obligatory, as is a washer-disinfector. A further key difference in Scotland is that endodontic instruments must be treated as single use, even on the same patient this rule was relaxed in England in , provided specific conditions are met.
The solution should contain a detergent, not a disinfectant. Disinfectant solutions alone can precipitate proteins making them difficult to remove.
Change the liquid in the ultrasonic cleaner at the end of each session or more frequently if it becomes heavily contaminated. Autoclaving is the method of choice, where the highest temperature compatible with the instruments is used. It is important to check the parameters during a cycle and a printer makes this easy. Steam needs to condense on all surfaces of the instruments in the autoclave chamber for effective sterilisation, which means that the air must be removed from the chamber.
Air is either displaced downwards by steam being introduced into the chamber or removed by a vacuum. For a long time downward displacement autoclaves were the only type used in a dental surgery; they are still considered an acceptable means of sterilisation.
More recently vacuum-phase autoclaves have become available. If you are considering purchasing one you must ensure that it is capable of sterilising dental instruments, not all are. Wrapped instruments and instruments in pouches must be sterilised using a vacuum-phase autoclave.
Effective sterilisation of handpieces continues to be the subject of debate. A vacuum-phase autoclave will remove air from the lumen of a dental handpiece allowing steam to penetrate. The presence of lubricating oil, however, may compromise the sterilisation process. Current opinion is that effective pre-sterilisation cleaning of dental handpieces and subsequent processing in a properly functioning downward displacement autoclave is acceptable.
All autoclaves must be regularly serviced and maintained. Vacuum-phase autoclaves are more complicated than conventional steam sterilisers and require more rigorous testing to demonstrate that they are functioning correctly. You are encouraged to use equipment that is described by the manufacturer as single use whenever possible. Whether you work in a dental office, plan to, or just visit one regularly, you need to understand why infection control is critical and how to look out for it in whichever role you play.
Bacteria are among the fastest growing organisms in the world and billions of them live in your mouth. What might be harmless to one person can cause another to become ill. And cross contamination, when something left from one patient transfers to another, can be dangerous to the patient.
But you can protect your patients and yourself with regular precautions, such as:. With frequent and proper sterilization methods, you can be a warrior in the battle against bacteria. It would be bad enough if you got an illness from your patient, even worse if you gave something to them.
But imagine if a single illness spread across the town, the state, and even the whole country. In addition to COVID, improper sterilization and infection control can lead to the spread of other viruses and diseases such as hepatitis, influenza, measles, and strep throat.
Preventative measures keep the whole community safe. One small mistake or lapse in judgment can lead to serious illness or possibly death. If a patient were to fall ill, or if an outbreak of COVID was tied to your practice, it could deter patients from coming.
It could even damage the reputation of your practice. When you follow the proper policies, it shows that you have integrity and care about your patients.
In the midst of the pandemic, that has been especially difficult, but OSHA has additional recommendations.
0コメント