Introduction The manual gives an account of the infection control practices and guidelines that need to be adopted in an oral healthcare sector by the physicians, nurses, staff members, patients as well as the visitors. This will restrict the spread of infection due to any unknown concept in healthcare or negligence. Purpose The purpose for the preparation of this manual is to provide the current infection control and guidelines to the employees, patients and visitors of the dental clinic. The Manual suggests the best practice strategies to the oral healthcare providers in implementing the infection prevention and control.It is not possible to dictate or enforce the people working in healthcare sector to comply with the infection control procedures as it arises with a personal sense of responsibility. Thus, the professional responsibility serves as the key to correct as well as detect the breaches in the aseptic techniques and ensure total patient care(Yale University, 2018). Goals of infection control practices To understand the application and concepts of Routine Practices To understand the concept of chain of transmission To use, apply and remove the personal protective equipment appropriately To understand the correct time and reason for using the additional precautions (Interior Health, 2016) Infection Prevention and Control principles in a Dental Clinic Following the routine practices Patient assessment
Applicationoftheprinciplesofcleaning,sterilizationandstorageofdental equipments and instruments Overall care of the office setting Proper handling and disposal of wastes Use of the barrier techniques for prevention of infections Environmental cleaning(Royal College of Dental Surgeons, 2010) Routes of transmission The routes for transmission of the infection causing agents can be classified into four major categories- Transmission through contact Through Direct contact: the infection that transmits through direct physical contact between the infected person and the susceptible host while changing the dresses, giving baths and other means. Through indirect contact: when the infection from the infected person transmits to the susceptible host through the means of an intermediate object such as clothing, instruments, bed linens and such others. Through droplet contact: This mode of transmission is usually significant in cases of pulmonary infections when the pathogens pass from infected person to the susceptible host through coughing, sneezing or talking. Vehicle route The pathogens transfer to the susceptible hosts through contaminated food, water, blood or drugs. Airborne transmission It occurs through inhalation of the aerosols that contain infectious agents.
Vector-borne transmission It occurs when an infected vector bites a susceptible host. This type of transmission is rare in case of the oral/dental diseases(Kohn et al., 2003). Standard Precautions for dental practitioners Handling the blood of all the patients as potentially infectious Washing hands before and after the specimen or patient contact Wearing personal protective equipments whole handling the dental patients Maintaining environmental cleanliness Processing all the patient care equipments and instruments correctly Wearing a mask before treating the patients to prevent any respiratory infections Followingthealcohol-basedsterilizationproceduresfortheinstruments(HIC Manual, 2018) References HIC Manual (2018)Hospital Infection Control Manual for Small Healthcare Organizations. [Online] Available from:http://www.nabh.co/Images/PDF/HIC_Guidebook.pdf[Accessed 16 May 2018]. InteriorHealth,2016.InfectionPreventionandControl.[Online]Availablefrom: https://www.interiorhealth.ca/AboutUs/QualityCare/IPCManual/Entire%20Infection %20Control%20Manual.pdf[Accessed 17 May 2018]. Kohn, W.G. et al. (2003)Guidelines for Infection Control in Dental Health-Care Settings. [Online]Availablefrom:https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5217a1.htm [Accessed 17 May 2018]. Royal College of Dental Surgeons (2010)Infection Prevention and Control in the Dental Office. [Online] Availablefrom:http://www.rcdso.org/save.aspx?id=ab90c89d-dcf4-4a2c- 9a8a-bb91a316b6a0[Accessed 17 May 2018].
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