Health and Safety in the Dental Environment: A Comprehensive Report

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CONTRIBUTE TO HEALTH AND SAFETY
IN THE DENTAL ENVIRONMENT
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................3
LO1...........................................................................................................................4
1.1 CURRENT HEALTH AND SAFETY LEGISLATION.............................................4
1.2 WORKPLACE PROCEDURE IN HEALTH AND SAFETY.....................................5
1.2 REASON FOR ADHERING TO MANUFACTURER’S INSTRUCTION.....................6
1.3 WORKPLACE LEGISLATION.............................................................................7
Lo2........................................................................................................................... 8
2.1 HAZARDS WITHIN THE WORKPLACE..............................................................8
2.2 WORKING PRACTICE THAT RESULT IN HARM.................................................9
LO3.........................................................................................................................10
3.1 WORK IN A WAY THAT DOES NOT RISK THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF
MATERIAL AND PERSONNEL..............................................................................10
3.2HEALTH AND SAFETY IMPROVEMENT IN DENTAL CLINIC..............................11
3.3 GUIDELINES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY DENTAL PRACTICES.............12
3.4 PERSONAL PRESENTATION TO PROTECT SELF AND OTHERS........................13
3.5 MANAGE HAZARD IN DENTAL WORKPLACE.................................................14
3.6 REPORT HAZARDS TO IDENTIFIED PERSON..................................................15
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................16
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INTRODUCTION
In this assignment, we will deal with the health and safety measure in dental
practice. Various law and legislation have been proposed in order to maintain the
safety of people. The dentist, as well as patient, has equal chances of transmitting
infection. Dentistry has been associated with various hazards. The dental
practitioners have the responsibility to maintain proper hygiene and good
practice.
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LO1
1.1 CURRENT HEALTH AND SAFETY LEGISLATION
Health and safety measure in the dental environment can be defined as the
reduction of potential harm that has been provided from health care
management. Dental care practitioner is at higher risk to many hazards form their
workplace like psychological hazards, pharmaceutical hazards, ergonomic
hazards, pathogen and blood infection (Bailey et al., 2015).
The occupational health and safety act 1984 has been adopted by the UK
government which has the main aim of promoting and securing the health and
safety measure in the dental environment (Kent, 2017). It helps to reduce to
eliminate dental hazards.
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1.2 WORKPLACE PROCEDURE IN HEALTH AND SAFETY
The dental care practitioner can practice their services in their own clinic or with
some hospital. There are equal chances of spread of infection in both the sectors.
The dentist should use safe methods and equipment in order to perform their
work. The instrument should be properly sterilized (Khanna & Dhaimade, 2018).
The entire staff member should be well trained to perform adequately during the
emergency to perform own safety measure prior to helping others.
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1.2 REASON FOR ADHERING TO MANUFACTURER’S INSTRUCTION
In dentistry there are so many potential hazards has to be taken place to patients
by improper maintenance of equipment and product. Most of the error has been
occurred due to lack of proper understanding of equipment and product to be
used. The dental care practitioners have the responsibility to properly read the
instruction of goods (Khanna & Dhaimade, 2018). Whatever the autoclave has
been using, the dentist should read the following instruction on loading the
sterilizer. The instructions are specific for each product and hence an impact on
the effectiveness of goods. A product such as VistaTab from Vista, ICX from A-dec,
MicroCLEAR from Rowper have specific instruction regarding the shock treatment
and hence carefully read the instruction to prevent health hazards.
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1.3 WORKPLACE LEGISLATION
Health and safety act 1974-
In this act, the employees or workers must be protected from safe, secure and
health at the workplace (Holt, & Allen, 2015).
Control of substance hazardous to health (COSHH)-
In this law, it requires the health care practitioner to control substances and
product that are harmful to health.
Environmental protection act 1990-
This act has made provision in order to control pollution of land, water and air by
managing the waste resources (Weiland, 2018).
Ionizing Radiation Regulations-
Legislation has been made for the user of radiation; learn basic principle of
radiation, dental radiography has to been taken a safety with high quality,
RIDOOR 1995-
RIDOOR stand for reporting of injuries, dangerous and disease occurrence
regulation. In this act, if someone is died due to work-related issue it is the
responsibility to inform other organization or their family members (Williams,
2015).
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Lo2
2.1 HAZARDS WITHIN THE WORKPLACE
Dentistry has been considered as an extreme hazard procedure. The hazard may
be infectious, physiological, allergic, physical, mercury health, and ionizing, non-
ionizing hazards. It has been noticed that dental practitioner has been a great risk
of exposure to blood born infection such as HIV, hepatitis B and C. This may be
due to lack of proper follow-up procedure (Williams, 2015). This can be prevented
by the use of latex gloves in dental practice. The musculoskeletal injuries are to be
caused due to a sitting posture. Dentistry is stressful. Around 83 per cent dentist
thinks that dental practice is very stressful.
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2.2 WORKING PRACTICE THAT RESULT IN HARM
Dental practitioner should be very aware of their fiduciary duties of service
seekers and their professionalism. A dental hazard is somewhat that may cause
harm or illness due to blood, saliva, fire, vomiting and electricity (Arora, S., Mittal
& Dogra, 2017). In dentistry the hazard me be due to reception areas broken chair
may lead to injury to the people. Unsterilized instrument and equipment may
lead to the transfer of infection from one person to another. The health care
practitioner should regularly check the expiry date of the product and also read
the proper instruction on the products.
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LO3
3.1 WORK IN A WAY THAT DOES NOT RISK THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF
MATERIAL AND PERSONNEL
 The dental care practitioner must remove the potential hazard that may be
injuries to health (Suresh et al., 2018).
 They could replace the more harmful product to a less hazardous one.
 He could isolate the hazardous product from the work practice. This can be
achieved by the use of installing screens in hazardous areas.
 If the hazards cannot be substituted, eliminate or reduce the next option
will be engineering control. In this modification has been done in
equipment and instruments.
 The dentist should perform work to reduce the risk. They could reduce the
time of patient exposed to a hazardous environment (Suresh et al., 2018).
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3.2HEALTH AND SAFETY IMPROVEMENT IN DENTAL CLINIC
The dental practitioners are responsible to provide safe and secure services and a
healthy environment.
Infection control: the dentist should follow infection control policy and it has to
be regularly monitored, assess and implement properly (Hasan, Saeed &
Choudhary, 2015).
Monitoring of practices: the dental practitioner should regularly inspect and
review the audit to identify the situations.
Maintenance of equipment: a preventive measure should be implemented in
dental practice (Hasan, Saeed & Choudhary, 2015). Before using any instrument
and equipment the worker should check the instrument.
Documented records. The dental practitioner should maintain a file of record and
data of product and equipment and should regularly checkup the expiry date of
the products.
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3.3 GUIDELINES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY DENTAL PRACTICES
Now a day, dentists are adopting green or environmental friendly policies. These
policies may include the use of goods and product that are biodegradable and
should produce less toxic effects like volatile organic compounds (Kent, 2017).
This compound may cause adverse effect due to prolonged exposure of this
material. The team should use disposable item so that it can be reused or recycle
and hence it reduces energy and water consumption.
The dentist is using Eco-Dentistry product on a regular basis. It may produce very
little harm to the patients. Hu-Friedy with Enzymax Earth has been made but the
manufacturer that is more eco-friendly for the consumer as well as a dentist
(Kent, 2017).
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