Dental Practice Safety Guidance

Sooner or later, each of us faces the question: “Where to go to treat teeth?”. Today, there is a big choice – go to the state dental clinic or to a private dental office.

Whatever you choose, remember that the safety of dental treatment directly depends on compliance with the sanitary-anti-epidemic regime. After all, when visiting a dentist, patients do not undergo preliminary examinations for the presence of infectious diseases. So, if you violate the rules of asepsis and antiseptics in the dental office, you can receive a “gift”, for example, viral hepatitis B with a sealed tooth.

Therefore, first ask if your dental institution has a license to provide services. The presence of a license means that the activities are authorized by state bodies. When issuing a license, the state licensing authority also checks the compliance of the occupied premises, the equipment used with the declared types of services, and whether it meets all the necessary sanitary requirements.

A written contract for the provision of paid medical ser-vices must be concluded with the patient. It reflects the conditions, terms of receipt of medical services, settle-ment procedure, rights, obligations and responsibilities of the parties. You should carefully read the terms of the contract. If you were not offered to conclude such a con-tract at all, then you should be wary…

In addition, it is not a bad idea for every potential patient in a dental institution to remember a few basic rules of the anti-epidemic regime:

First of all, pay attention to the sanitary and hygienic condition of the dental office – the cleanliness of the room.

The dentist should carry out manipulations with gloves and a dental mask. Gloves should be changed after working with each patient.

When treating each patient, a dentist should use an individual chest napkin, a glass for rinsing the mouth with water, a sterile dental tool kit, which is supplied from the sterile table or ultraviolet chamber with the patient and is used only for him or her.

Disinfection of the objects located in the treatment area should be carried out after each patient: headrest and armrests of the dental chair, spittoon, lamp, table for tools. So, if you were offered to take a dental chair immediately after the previous patient, then you’d better refuse services in this office.

An ultraviolet irradiator should be installed to disinfect the air in the cabinet.

To comply with the anti-epidemic regime, the doctor must work accompanied by the average medical staff, which processes workplaces, disinfects the cabinet, and sterilizes instruments.

Of course, this is far from the entire list of requirements for an anti-epidemic regime. But violation of even one of these rules already suggests that this dental organization has problems with the attitude of staff towards ensuring infectious safety.

To summarize, we must say that it’s up to choose where you treat your teeth, but you should trust such a medical institution that spares no money in order to ensure the safety of its patients.