Many patients ask questions about the protocols we use to sterilize instruments. We believe in maintaining and surpassing infection control guidelines. Rooms are disinfected after a patient leaves. Plastic barriers are used whenever possible and all instruments are placed in an autoclave for proper sterilization. An autoclave is a device that uses steam and heat to kill germs. The autoclave itself is inspected at regular intervals to make sure that it is working properly.
Our goal is to reduce or eliminate the potential for cross contamination. Think of the dental office as a health care facility that is not unlike a hospital. Over the years, hospitals have developed strict guidelines to sterilize instruments and prevent the spread of infection. These modern systems are very different from the way health care facilities were managed at the turn of the twentieth century. Back then, doctors operated in street clothes and did procedures with their bare hands—no gloves.
Today, in all good health care facilities, including our dental office, we always wear gloves, we use other barrier protection whenever possible, and we take great care to enforce rigid protocols to make sure that all our instruments have been properly sterilized.
