Blog Series – Infection Control

Infection control in the dental practice is more preventing disease passing form one person to the other. The mouth is, sorry to say this, a dirty place. It is exposed to the outside environment constantly. We introduce all matters of things into our mouths via food and liquids and aerosols that carry with it bacteria and viruses. The dental team needs to protect you from us and, yes, the reverse is very true. We have to assume everyone that walks in the door has a terrible contagious disease. We take a medical history but not everyone is reliable and may not truly know they have a problem.

Sterilisation is the end part of the process of preventing infection passing from patient to patient. We need to clean the instruments first, then verify that the sterilisation has been done thorough various indicators. This is recorded in the computer and sterilisation records stored. The packs have barcodes that are then scanned into your notes.

The dentist has the final say before the instruments are used by doing the final check that the indicators have changed correctly. But there is more! The sterilisers and other equipment are tested regularly to make sure they are working properly.

This is all before you sit in the chair to hear our sparkling conversation starting with “Good to see you!”.

These blog articles reveal some aspects of infection control we do at Seymour Dental.

• Our Facilities
• A day in the life of a Dental Nurse – Roni – Part 1- Morning and Infection Control
• A day in the life of a Dental Nurse – Roni – Part 3 – Afternoon, Evening and End of the Day!
• Things that nurses do – Part 3 – Sterilisation
• Things that nurses do – Part 4 – Infection control – Cross contamination
• Roni on infection control
• Sue on hygiene and infection control
• The things that dentists wear – not just a smile

Next week: Remembering the Anzacs