How Can an Autoclave Machine Help Dental Clinics with Infection Control?
Dental equipment is a major part of any dental office. Without the right dental equipment suppliers, you won’t have access to the necessary supplies to enable your employees to do their jobs effectively. As a dentist, you need to use a variety of instruments and equipment at your clinic to provide a high-quality service that treats patients safely and effectively.
Hygiene is essential to keep patients at your dental practice safe and pleasant because if the right measures are not taken, an infection in one patient could easily spread to other patients and employees.
An autoclave machine is one of a dentist’s most crucial instruments since maintaining cleanliness is crucial for any dental clinic. However, additional instruments and apparatus may be used, such as scalers, drills, syringes, and mirrors for dental examinations. We’ll look at how to maintain sterility in your dental office and avoid infection below.
How to maintain sterility and prevent infection at your dental clinic
Any environment where healthcare is provided must prioritize infection prevention. Sanitizing with the aim of good infection control in dental offices can prevent diseases from spreading and having disastrous effects on patients and employees. You must take the following steps to minimize the risk of infection transmission:
Proper waste management: It is important to ensure that waste generated during dental procedures does not expose patients and healthcare professionals to infection.
Clean the Dental Unit Waterline: The waterline is a potential infection source in dental clinics. Therefore, it is advisable to set up a dedicated waterline for sterilization and for tools like dental handpieces and ultrasonic scalers that need water to operate. The waterline must be regularly inspected to stop biofilm from forming, which can lead to infection.
Protective clothing and other gear: Infections in dental clinics can be avoided using protective gear such as gloves, masks, and goggles. Gloves provide a sufficient barrier and stop the spread of infections from patients’ bodily fluids and blood. Similar to this, masks and eye protection are very effective at preventing airborne diseases. Additionally, oral healthcare professionals wear long sleeves when using gowns as protective barriers.
Hand Washing: This preventative technique is crucial in dental settings to prevent cross-infection. Dental workers must wash their hands before and after conducting any surgical treatment or routine examination. However, dentists should perform thorough hand scrubbing and cleansing under the nails for surgical procedures.
Thorough sterilization: Sterilization ensures that the micro-organisms, especially spores on the surface of dental instruments, are destroyed, thereby reducing the chances of an infection. Having high-end equipment that covers the decontamination and sterilization process from start to finish will protect you and provide the peace of mind needed to focus on treating your patients.
The benefits of having a complete infection control solution process
Certain procedures must happen for a practice to run smoothly. These set procedures or systems control a dental office’s daily operations. In dentistry, the main benefits of having a complete infection control solution are efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
Cost-effectiveness: This is a crucial statistic to take into account. The highest cost of a dental office is labour, which accounts for about 25% of the budget. Up to 70-80 times a day, the typical dental assistant goes into the sterilization area to complete cleaning and sterilizing duties.
Sterilization equipment is frequently not purchased by practices because they believe they would save money. Instead, money is spent on labour. Making the correct equipment investments can reduce labour costs. Ultimately, large purchases of sterilization equipment can pay for themselves within eight months to a year.
Workflow efficiencies: Instruments can be processed more efficiently with a complete infection control solution. Clinicians are more at risk for acute injury during the labour and time-intensive receiving process that involves handling loose instruments, cleaning, and drying. This approach is risky and ineffective. However, employing cassettes and an instrument washer can save time and money by minimizing the handling of instruments. Using instrument cassettes is far more effective from an organizational perspective.
Why dentists should use an Autoclave
One major piece of equipment doctors should use for proper sterilization is an autoclave. It is an efficient sterilizer that ensures all the tools are sterile and ready to be stored for a reasonable timeframe. Below are reasons why doctors should use an autoclave:
With the use of steam and pressure at a very high temperature, autoclaves perform the task of sterilizing dental instruments, rendering all microorganisms incapable of surviving.
It disintegrates the bacteria’s cell walls’ proteins by flocculating them via hydrolysis.
It ensures that patients and dental staff are in a secure environment.
How to choose the right Autoclave for your dental clinic
You don’t have to go through a hassle to find the right autoclave for your dental clinic. The right dental equipment suppliers can assist you in choosing the autoclave that will work best for you and your workplace. You can start by ensuring that the manufacturer you intend to purchase your autoclave from is reputable and well-known. However, there are other factors to consider.
Price: You must be aware of your financial limitations. You can use a smaller one if you cannot afford a larger one since all autoclaves operate on the same principles and the price increases with size.
Warranty: This refers to the warranty, after-sales service, and easy availability of trained technicians for regular servicing and maintenance. Verify that the autoclave has a guarantee that lasts for at least a few years and that qualified personnel is on call for yearly calibration, servicing, and maintenance.
Equipment load: Your autoclave’s size will depend on how many items you need to sterilize. A knowledgeable distributor can suggest the best autoclave according to chamber size.
Utilization simplicity: Your team will want to spend less time using an autoclave with simple controls to handle the sanitization process if your clinic is busy daily. Therefore, a device with pre-programmed sterilization cycles and simple, clear navigation with a single click is a wise choice because you need a medical device to make your workflow more effective and safe within your daily limited and hectic hours.
Looking for the best autoclave machine?
An autoclave is a significant financial commitment. Every user must hope their autoclave will function properly and be maintained for many years. Decide on a device with a few years of warranties and experienced technicians available for routine servicing, calibration, and maintenance.