Infection Control in the dental practice focuses on the use of sterilization procedures that will be able to eliminate cross-infection from a dental professional to a patient, from a patient to the dental professional and between two patients.
At Our clinic we follow an international protocol for infection control for the safety of our patients and team members.
- Sterilization of Instruments
We follow 3 different cycles of sterilization at our centres:-
- Chemical sterilization
- Ultrasonic Cleaner
- Autoclaving
- Glass Bead Sterilizer
All instruments are cleaned thoroughly by rinsing and scrubbing with detergent and water. These are then immersed in a container with Glutaraldehyde solution and left inside for 4 hrs.
Ultrasonic cleaning uses cavitation bubbles induced by high frequency pressure (sound) waves to agitate a liquid solvent like water. The agitation produces high forces on contaminants adhering to instruments and removes all traces of contaminants. Cleaning time: 7-10 minutes.
Imstruments are then removed from the cleaner, packed in sterilisable pouches (single use only) and placed in the autoclave drum. We use the Prestige 2100 Classic automatic autoclave. The cycle for wrapped instruments includes heat-up and pressurization time, followed by a 15-to-30-minute cycle during which sterilization is taking place (121°C at 15 psi).
This sterilizer is used for relatively smaller instruments (Root Canal Files, Paper Points), which after following the above mentioned cycles of sterilization are put into this sterilizer just before use in the patient’s mouth.
Instruments are handled by our staff while wearing Heavy duty gloves and a protective face mask protecting them from any risk of injury or cross infection.
- Storage of Sterile Instruments:- After the instruments are sterilized, they are taken out of the autoclave and all the sterile pouches are placed in an Ultraviolet chamber. This chamber protects and preserves the sterility of the instruments until required and opened in front of the patient.
- Surface Disinfection:- Between clinical sessions, work surfaces are thoroughly cleaned and decontaminated with a surface disinfectant containing isopropyl alcohol (70%). Also any equipment which cannot be put through the autoclave is also sterilized in this manner.
- Each set of gloves & masks, used by us and our staff, are used only once for one patient. We, and our staff, maintain the hand wash protocol before & after treating the patient to prevent any cross contamination & infection.
- After each patients visit , gloves are discarded, needless to say that the Disposables like needles, Syringes, Disp.glasses, suction tips, patients drapes, tray covers are all for one time usage & to be discarded after one use.
- Surgical Protocol:- This protocol is maintained even more rigidly. Disposable items are strictly sterile and patient is also made to wear a head cap and protective eye wear. Surgical sterile gowns are worn by the dentist and staff. For an implant procedure, the armamentarium used is sterilized just before the procedure and the sterile implant (packaged and sealed by the manufacturer following international standards of sterilization) is opened in front of the patient just before use.
