Infection Control and Prevention

RUNNING HEAD: INFECTION CONTROL AND PREVENTION
INFECTION CONTROL AND PREVENTION
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1INFECTION CONTROL AND PREVENTION
INTRODUCTION
Infectious diseases and allergies implies portentous risks in a dental care setting, a
clinic. These are certain guidelines (Trubiano et al. 2016) laid within a legal framework that
the dental practitioners of Australia are instructed and hoped to comply with in a daily dental
profession. The policies and rules apply to all the dentists, the dental prosthetist, the dental
hygienists, the dental therapists, the dental specialists and the oral therapists. These infection
control strategies are pertinent to how the dental practitioners and other related professionals
can avert or decrease the risk of infectious spread in a dental clinic. Dental practitioners may
be committed to this framework in such a way that it regulates and also contributes to
improvement of public health and a dental care safety by assuring and fostering an awareness
about a risk free environment in a clinic. These clinical and environmental guidelines are
brought up by section 39 of Dental Board of Australia who controls the execution of these
guideline at a state and territory level in compliance with the Health Practitioner Regulation
National Law.
Infection control according to the guidelines
Infection control emphases on limiting factors that prevents infection transmission
and contribute to microbial spread. The microbial spread mist be diminished by – 1.limiting
the surface contamination (Sousa et al. 2016) with infectious organisms. 2. Following
personal sanitary and health hygiene practices, particularly good hand hygiene. 3. Usage of
right personal protective equipment (Lima et al. 2016.) 4. Using disposable products when
appropriate. 5. Adherence to risk reduction techniques (Clevenger et al. 2015) such as pre-
procedural or pre surgical mouth rinsing.
The standard precautions inscribed by the national body have the basic processes of
infection control that help cut down the infection transmission risk. It involves – 1.

2INFECTION CONTROL AND PREVENTION
Undertaking routine hand cleaning after gloving and before glove use. 2. Using protective
barriers like masks, gloves, gowns and eye protection. 3. Application of a proper protective
equipment while doing the clinical procedures, while cleaning, reprocessing (World Health
Organization 2016) the instruments.4. Correct management of contaminated waste. 5.
Handling the sharps objects in the right way. 6. Proper use of reusable instruments (Price
2016) 6. Effectively adhering to environmental cleaning guidelines. 7. Maintenance of cough
etiquette and respiratory hygiene. 7. Appropriate using of the aseptic non-touch techniques. 8.
Handling clinical gowns and linen with care. 9. Environmental barriers like the plastic
coverings in surfaces and on items which may be contaminated and are at risk.
CLINICAL GOVERNANCE REQUIREMENTS
Each dental health practitioner in a clinical setting must guarantee that a person at
highest level is very much responsible for the leadership of infection prevention and the
control program across the organization. The outcomes and progress of programs must
always be reported to the highest management of organization. According to dental health
infection control - 1 the clinical leaders and the senior managers of dental clinic must take the
responsibility for implementation and evaluation of systems in order to prevent, manage
dental infections, with collaboration of Board who shall oversee this process. Additional
expertise and advice must be taken from expert individuals or skilled workforce or infection
control committee whenever required. The plan must specify vital steps in order to address
the enhancements and the measurement devices or infection control and risk management
(Little et al. 2017) Visitors and patients should be addressed with necessary information and
should be educated in order to avoid the spread of dental infections and communicable
diseases.