Michelle Aubé (Simmonds), RDH
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March 10, 2023
In the past few months, I have been asked by dental offices what type of training the person performing instrument reprocessing requires.
Regardless of geographical location, every dental office MUST have a policy in effect that specifies the requirements and frequencies of baseline and ongoing IPAC education and training, as well as a competency assessment of the employee in regard to instrument reprocessing and the equipment used for reprocessing.
What does this mean for new hires and existing employees?
First, it means when new hires come on board, having an existing team member, or the team member that is about to leave train the new hire no longer cuts it. Why?
Because it’s not enough.
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March 05, 2023Quiet quitting is about setting healthy barriers to well-defined job descriptions with supportive leadership from management. A ‘good leader’ that takes care of their team has already put quiet quitting elements into practice way before it was called quiet quitting. A ‘good leader’ offers strategies for their team to have a work-life because they want ...
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March 05, 2023A dental office reprocessing area must be organized in a one-way workflow to prevent cross-contamination. The one-way workflow is composed of stations that are linked in functionality to one another to finally achieve the end point of reprocessing; sterilization. Each station can only perform the duties of THAT station and can only host the contents of THAT station’s tasks. In ‘common practice’ vs ‘best practice’ reprocessing rooms ...
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March 05, 2023Our previous blog post discussed the Canadian dental labour shortage and identified some rationales as to why there is a labour shortage in dentistry. In the first post, we identified that Dentistry requires a high level of performance expectations from those working in the industry.
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March 01, 2023There are two main elements to the reprocessing of a dental bur. First, what does the manufacturer of the bur state to do with the bur? Is it single use or can it be reprocessed? Second, if it can be reprocessed what are the steps from end-to-end use that meet IPAC standards of practice.
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February 24, 2023
For years, dentistry has had an oversaturation of dental professionals. There hasn’t been a dental labour shortage before now. Instead, job postings were few and far between and most jobs surfaced through word of mouth and were immediately filled. Currently, Canada is experiencing a significant labour shortage in dentistry. Dental professionals, where are you?
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September 14, 2022In any IPAC discussion, a proper risk assessment guided by the Hierarchy of Controls and Spaulding’s Classification will never stir any IPAC guru wrong! Even with dental offices having attended countless continuing education on IPAC, there may still be lingering remnants of ‘common practice’ that require a closer look.
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August 12, 2022Although digital imaging is at the forefront of dentistry, not every office has a digital scanner or a second or third scanner to fully eliminate manual impression taking. In every office there seems to always be the one or two impression guru’s that constantly capture a fabulous impression. You too can be an impression guru with the review of some simple elements and skills that can deliver a more predictable ‘good impression’ organized with proper planning.
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July 18, 2022
Identifying pathogens to ensure proper elimination has always been part of the infection prevention and control in dentistry. The SARS CoV-2 pandemic has shown how an emerging pathogen can surface and spread globally. Emerging pathogens are defined as a new microorganism or an existing microorganism that is changing patterns. In the hopeful forward movement out of the SARS CoV-2 pandemic, the Monkeypox virus has made a come back from the late 1970’s where in the 1980’s it was believed to be irradicated with successful vaccinations 1. Monkeypox virus is a member of the Orthopoxvirus genus, and includes variola virus (smallpox virus), vaccinia virus, cowpox, and other poxviruses 2. The National Library of Medicine states “the last endemic case of smallpox occurred in 1977, total eradication was confirmed in 1980” 3. “Smallpox helped to shape history, and it made history by being the first disease to be controlled by immunization and the first to
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June 30, 2022Finding instruments affected by an IPAC lapse requires a system that leaves no room for error. That translates to either missing notifying clients involved in the lapse and/or notifying by error clients not involved in the lapse. Both are HUGE risks that no office wants. Can this risk be mitigated? Good news, yes, and the answer is digital logging with barcodes that ensure accuracy with a system computer engineered with prompting screens loaded with the actual IPAC standards.
