Infection Control

Inside Dental Hygiene (IDH): You recently published an infection control guidebook. What are the most important parts of it?

Michelle Strange, MSDH, RDH: There are so many important areas of infection control, but sterilization stands out as a key task to monitor and ensure that you are preventing breaches. There is so much equipment that needs to be properly sterilized: ultrasonic instrumentation, autoclaves, and the like.

IDH: Do dental hygienists and assistants pay enough attention to sterilization?

Strange: Many people get confused about the nuances of sterilization, starting with what records to keep. Spore testing is crucial, for example. If you are not documenting it, then in an official audit it did not happen. Understanding how to label your sterilization workflow is important as well; I should be able to walk into your sterilization center and be very aware of what is dirty, what is clean, and what I can or cannot touch with clean hands. Additionally, everyone should be performing sterilization audits of their storage, to ensure that chemical indicators have turned, everything is packaged properly, and there are no breaches before those instruments make it to the patient's chair.

IDH: Are there any new developments in technologies or best practices that are important to infection control?

Strange: Dental unit water lines are not new, but they are still very confusing for quite a few clinicians. Many do not understand things like when to test, when to shock, how to treat, and whether to take the water bottle off and dry it out. It can be very confusing. Following the instructions for use (IFUs) and being educated on proper protocols is so important for water lines. Regarding new technologies, the biggest challenge often is understanding where they fit in the Spaulding classification system: critical, semi-critical, and noncritical. Sensors, intraoral scanners, and even items such as cameras on loupes are relatively new elements in the workflow, so we need to understand how to clean, disinfect, and sterilize them without damaging them by using the wrong type of disinfectant, or by not barrier wrapping. Use the IFUs to develop standard operating procedures that will prevent infection control breaches without ruining the equipment.

About the Author

Michelle Strange, MSDH, RDH
Owner
Level Up Infection Prevention