Objective:
Maintain a chain of asepsis throughout dental office. Learn good habits or correct bad habits (even for experienced CDA’s)
Goal:
Reduce healthcare associated infections (nosocomial)
Healthcare-associated infections specific to the dental office are caused by indirect transfer of pathogens from hard surfaces
Some Examples:
| Pathogen | Survival on Hard surface |
| Herpes (simplex and zoster) | 1 hour (3 days on hand towel) |
| Hepatitis B/C/D | B: I week or more |
| HIV/AIDS | 5-6 days |
| Cold & Flu Viruses | 24 hours |
| Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) | days – weeks |
Table 1 Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3375115/
Remember that asepsis is the reduction of pathogens: be aware of all surfaces that can be contaminated
Gloves are cheap, but if you’re organized you can reduce the number of gloves needed to maintain the chain of asepsis.
It’s easy to get a false sense of asepsis just because you’re wearing gloves.
10 things to do before donning treatment gloves (any procedure):
- Wash hands
- Don eyewear (protective or otherwise) and mask
- Prep operatory
- Open patient chart (confirm treatment)
- Display records: x-rays, etc.
- Establish treatment area (clean, aseptic, or sterile depending on procedure)
- Open your tray or cassette (only touch outer edge of tray or outside of cassette)
- Dispense supplies onto treatment area: anesthetic, treatment materials, protective barriers
- *Place barriers (after scrub: sterile)
- Hand rub or hand scrub
Now you can don treatment gloves
(Remember that you cannot touch any surface except what you open onto your treatment area – be careful when placing barriers: sterile)
Treatment gloves are the last thing that you put on prior to procedure and the first thing that you take off!
Further reading:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1564025/
