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Admittedly, there will always be an element of risk associated with all dental procedures, as far as infectious diseases are concerned, but dentists are much more likely to get the worst of it than their patients. This is because patients visit only one clinic and they do so only occasionally. On the other hand, several patients with numerous, different potential diseases meet the same dentist on every single workday. Therefore, precautions to keep germs out of the clinic should be considered a priority of the utmost importance, for the sake of both the professionals as well as their patients. A brief look through the basics should be sufficient to highlight the important steps necessary to maintain a safe dental clinic.
Transparent, Germproof Barriers
Sneeze guards are particularly important in the reception area, but a dentist should also stay behind the germproof barriers until the time when personal interaction is necessary for diagnosis/treatment. Minimizing exposure time is important because longer exposure will always increase the chances of getting a contagious infection significantly, while shorter exposure can at times be insufficient for transmitting enough pathogens from the host to the target.
State-of-the-Art Sterile Processing
All equipment used as a tool in the dentist’s clinic must be decontaminated regularly, and multiple times a day when necessary. This includes all examination and surgical tools. Decontamination alone is not enough though, especially if we are discussing presurgical sterilization. The sterile processing department in charge of supplying a dentist or orthodontist with sterilized tools must have the latest 4-step technology to ensure everything supplied to the professionals is completely germ-free.
Usage of PPE
Usage of personal protective gear (PPE) is an important safety precaution that no professional should ignore at any point in time. Long before the pandemic, dentists were supposed to wear gloves and surgical masks in an effort to keep germs from infecting an open wound during surgery or an oral examination. Nothing much has changed about that, but in addition, full-body PPE will also be necessary now due to covid.
It should be noted that full-body PPE gear protects dental professionals from catching infections, rather than it being the other way around. This is quite important since medical workers are much more likely to get exposed to infectious diseases than their patients. If they are unable to keep themselves safe, they may in turn end up infecting other patients who come in contact with them later on.