Blood and saliva may serve as an important source of contamination. In our office, patient's health and safety is the top priority. Accordingly, we use an elaborate sterilization process rather than selectively sterilize some instruments and only disinfect others. All instruments, including the handpieces, are thoroughly sterilized between patients in order to prevent spread of disease agents.
Sterilization is the process of killing all micro organisms (bacteria and viruses). If correctly performed, it provides the highest practical level of microbial kill that can be achieved. Sterilization in our office is performed in a designated room and includes the following activities:
1) After each use, contaminated instruments are placed in an ultrasonic device which contains a detergent solution. All debris are removed from the instruments by this mean. The instruments are then dried, packaged and sealed in special wrapping materials designed specifically for steam autoclave.
2) Steam autoclave is normally used to sterilize all the instruments, including hand pieces. Packaged instruments are placed in an autoclave for a minimum of 20 minutes at a temperature of about 275 degree Fahrenheit under 30 pounds per square inch of pressure. This excludes the warm up time of several minutes.
3) Sterilization monitoring which includes spore testing (biological monitoring) are routinely used to detect any small chance of sterilization failure.
4) Plastic instruments which are not autoclavable are sterilized by soaking them in a glutaraldehyde solution for 10 hours.
5) Treatment areas are completely cleaned between patients by wiping the counter top surfaces and chairs using special solutions.
6) Light handles, headrest, etc. are covered with disposable plastic covers.
7) Air/water syringe tips, suction, prophy angle (used for polishing and cleaning teeth) are all disposable. Also gloves and masks used by the doctor and the staff are discarded after each treatment.
We believe that full attention to these guidelines fully protects our patients and the staff from disease agents.