Sterilization and Infection control in a dental office.

This past year has been another busy year for continuing education.  Most programs start to wind down for the summer until next September the new "school year" starts again. 

The final formal lecture I attended for this season was last Friday, the subject was Infection control and Steriliztion standards in the dental office.  This is something that goes on behind the scenes in every dental office.  Most patients are more aware of it these days because they  see us wearing masks and gloves as well as wrapping various items in plastic.  This lecture reviewed the latest standards in care.  Most of you might already know that we use sterilizers ( we call them "autoclaves" ) in the office to sterilize everything we can.  But how do dentists know  they actually work and kill the bacteria and virus's that could infect a patient or staff memeber?  Along with chemical strips that tell us that the sterilizing conditions have occured in the autoclave, we place live harmless bacterial cultures inside and expose them to the sterilizing conditions.  We then culture them for 24 hours and see if they grow.  If not, we've been successful.  If not, action is taken!  Today,these spore tests are done each and every day that the office sees patients.

Being a great summer day and a Friday as well, it was great to see the lecture room at the Mississauga Convention Center was packed!