We, at Microscope Enhanced Dentistry at Dr. Bartakke’s, are very particular about infection control. With the rise in cases of serious infectious diseases, we make sure that our patients are safe and our clinics are not a place for cross contamination. For this purpose, we take care of all aspects of infection control via hygiene, decontamination, disinfection, sterilization and storage.
We follow Universal precautions (we treat each patient equally/ potentially infectious) in our clinic. Hand washing is a must before starting any activity in the clinic. Gloves and masks are a must while performing dental treatment on the patient. Depending on the procedure, the gloves can be either single use examination gloves or surgical gloves.
Hygiene:
Patient-care areas (like the instrument tray) are dusted every day and cleaned with a disinfectant cleaning solution between patients and at the end of each surgery session. The dental chairs are cleaned with special antiviral, antibacterial sprays. Housekeeping activities reduce the number of microorganisms in the facility (thus reducing patients’ and staff members’ risk of infections) and provide an appealing service-delivery space, as it is free of dust, dirt, and debris. The washroom is cleaned daily with a disinfectant cleaning solution. All the clinic hazardous biomedical garbage goes to the Bio-Medical waste agency for appropriate way of disposal.
Decontamination:
Instruments and other items are thoroughly scrubbed using a brush, wire brush, other cleaning tools; then they rinsed thoroughly with clean water before sterilization or disinfection. Sometimes, they are put in the ultrasonic cleanser that cleanses the instruments by ultrasonic vibrations in medicated solution bath. A clean surface or instrument is a prerequisite to any sterilization or disinfection procedures.
Disinfection and Sterilization:
Right from the dental chair a patient sits on to each and every instrument placed in the mouth is either disinfected or sterilized. Clean and dry instruments are put in the autoclave (steam sterilizer).Some instruments are sterilized open in the autoclave and some are put in special material pouches and then sterilized. Pouches are useful for storing instruments and surgical drapes. The sterility is valid for 6 months.
Instruments unable to stand the heat are cold sterilized by putting in special chemical sterilizing solution or made to undergo high level of disinfection. Certain instruments are cleaned using medical use spirit.
We never reuse needles or surgical blades. We use a digital needle burner to burn all the needlepoints. The suctions tips we use are either single use disposable or can be sterilized.
For a surgery, the aseptic kit of the microscope is sterilised in an autoclave. The aseptic kit has parts of microscope touched by the dentist and they are autoclaved before use in a microsurgery. After every microsurgery, the instruments are cleaned under the microscope or surgical loupes to make sure there is no organic debris or bloodstain on them. This ensures sterility of the instruments.
Storage:
Sterile instruments are stored in a clean storage area, instrument rack etc. Material is placed in their appropriate places.** Right from the dental chair a patient sits on to each and every instrument placed in the mouth is either disinfected or sterilized.
