As President-Elect of the Virginia Dental Association, it’s important to me that our members receive timely updates on important issues. Given the recent news regarding the sterilization of dental instruments, I’d like to pass on the following information that was discussed at the January 19 meeting of the Virginia Dental Association’s Infection Control and Environmental Safety Committee.

Regarding infection prevention, the committee discussed a 2016 CDC publication, “Summary of Prevention Practices in Dental Settings”. Some of the key issues with infection control recently in the news involve unsafe injection practice, failure to sterilize dental handpieces, and failure to monitor autoclaves and water quality. To help combat these issues, the committee recommends offering face masks to coughing patients (see page 8), using safe injection practice (see page 8, 12-15) and, most importantly, heat sterilizing low speed motors and prophy angles between patients (see page 15-18) and monitoring autoclaves and water quality (see pages 18-21).

To help start the conversation with your patients about your infection control and sterilization practices, check out this Hu-Friedy guide with scripts you can use in the event of an infection control breach. See below for a sample social media post:

The entire team at _________________ wants to reassure all of our patients that your safety during dental treatment is our #1 concern. We follow all of the infection control guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including weekly monitoring of our sterilizers. Click here for a summary of the guidelines we follow.

For further clarification on infection prevention and control we sought guidance from the Virginia Board of Dentistry. They referred us to the Board’s Guidance Document 60-15, Standards for Professional Conduct in the Practice of Dentistry.  The CDC provision is on page 4 and states that practitioners are responsible to follow the applicable CDC infection control guidelines and recommendations. The 2016 CDC publication linked above is intended to serve as a quick guide to these guidelines. Click here for additional information on the CDC infection prevention and control guidelines.

It’s important to the VDA that we not only provide clarification on requirements and best practices but that we provide you with resources to translate this information to your patients. Please let us know if there is any additional information we can provide.

Additional Resource:

Monitoring Autoclaves - The simplest method is utilizing sterilizer monitoring spore strips. You can order your supply of autoclave spore strips by contacting VCU Oral Diagnostic Services at (804) 828-1778. You can order 12 strips for $72; 24 strips for $117 or 52 strips for $200. Then follow the directions on the shipping envelop. The results from your testing will be your evidence of monitoring and documentation.

Thank you to Dr. Clara Spatafore for sharing this additional resource.