It is very important to prevent infection spreads from patient to dentist/nurse or patient to patient through dental equipments. In our clinic, infection control is our top priority and we always looking for ways to improve it. We can assure you that our instruments are very clean (we sterilize the tools) and we try to use more of the disposable material to stop contamination!! Below are some of the examples on how we handle infection and contain contamination:
1. We dispose gloves, bib and paper cup after every patient
2. We wrap our dental light handle and handles of the dental chair to prevent cross-infection and the wrapper will be disposed after every patient.
Handpieces Handpiece cleaner unit
3. Even our handpieces are covered with wrappers and the wrappers are single used only!! After used, our handpieces will be cleaned by a handpiece cleaner unit which flush out all the contaminant inside before re-use.
5. We dispose all the sharps (eg. injection needles, sutures and blades) in 'Yellow Bin'. All these items are for single used only!!
6. We pouch almost all of our instruments and store them in the drawers. The instrument will only be opened when needed. Therefore they are clean, sterilized and never exposed to the environment until opened.
7. Some of the area or equipment in the surgery room (eg. dental chair, sputum bowl, table top, floor etc) which cannot be disposed or sterilized and therefore we will disinfect them with disinfectant.
Disinfectant is used to disinfect the dental chair, table top as well as sputum bowl
Below: Some of the disinfection agents used in our clinic
Sterilization is process of eliminating or killing all the microbes by heating, irradiating, etc. It is also the method by which all contamination are completely destroyed including all bacterias, viruses and spores.
How do we sterilize our instruments?
1. Dirty or used instrument will be put in the sterilization room where the sharps (eg. needle, blade, suture) are isolated and will be dispose into the 'yellow bin' while clinical waste (eg. cotton, gauze, floss, etc) will be collected in the clinical waste bin.
Above: Dirty or used instruments wrapped in green cloth together with clinical wastes and sharp objects
Below: Yellow bin, Clinical Waste Bin, Ordinary DustBin
2. The instruments will then be washed under running water to remove larger mass of dirt and then soak in the disinfectant agent to kill bacteria.
Instrument in the disinfectant agent
3. After soaking in the disinfectant for 5-15minutes, the instruments will be rinsed with water and placed in the ultrasonic cleaner. In the ultrasonic cleaner, ultrasonic vibration will remove dirt more effectively, leaving the instrument clean and shinny.
Above: Ultrasonic Cleaner
Below: Instruments in the ultrasonic cleaner
4. The instruments are removed from the cleaner and dried before pouching or packing. We pack our examination set in a green cloth while the other instruments are pouched. (Below)
5. The instrument will finally be sterilized in an autoclave leaving them 100% bacteria free.
What is an autoclave?
Autoclave (Above) is a device to sterilize equipment/instrument by subjecting them to high pressure steam at 121 °C or more, typically for 15 to 20 minutes depending on the size of the load and the contents.
Our autoclave comply with the Class B, European EN 13060 standard which capable of sterilizing instruments deep under the pouch or even double pouching. This autoclave achieved the same standard as the autoclave in operating theater in hospital.
6. After sterilizing, the instruments will be kept in the drawer neatly.
7. And of course finally, the clinical waste and the sharps has to be dispose properly. These waste will be collected monthly by an assigned company to dispose properly.
We have the best infection control and sterilization method in town and we always upkeep ourselves with the new technology and idea to keep our customer and ourselves safe. I guess most of us want the cleanest and safest clinic as none of us want to get infected when we just go for a simple scaling!! Ha!