The St. Louis American recently reported that in relationship to media attention regarding dental office cleanliness, more dental professionals are keeping their offices extra tidy. This added attention to sterilization procedures is coming after news making headlines out of Virginia.
Earlier this year, it was discovered that employees erroneously used one-time dental use equipment multiple times. The mishap occurred at the John Cochran Division V.A. medical center in Virginia. Upon the discovery the clinic contacted approximately 1,800 St. patients to notify them about the risk internal sterilization policy breech. The major illness concerns were surrounded Hepatitis B, C or HIV, however luckily the risk was very small and no new cases of those diseases have yet to be reported.
Like with any medical procedure, dental instrument sterilization is essential to the treatment and recovery process. Within hospitals, it has been reported that tens of thousands of people perish annually because of preventable hospital infections. Dr. Mark Chassin, who leads the Joint Commission (formerly the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, has accredited to the lack of hand-washing hospital infections to 100,000 annual, American deaths.
This information provided a much-needed wake up call to dental practitioners around the nation. According to the source ore dentists are paying closer attention to the cleanliness of their work-spaces by ensuring:
Chairs are disinfected each morning and night and between each patient visit
The same attention to detail is being applied to lights, counters and all surfaces near the work space
Regular clean up and dumping of all garbage and medical waste.
Improvements in the sterilization of uniforms
Mandatory use of one time gloves and masks
If you are looking to find a dentist adhering to the most current sterilization practice recommendations, then visit MyUSADentalCare.com
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