maxill's Dental Blog

Air quality has surfaced as a hot topic in the pandemic control measures for dental offices.

Air quality falls under Additional Precautions in a dental office's IPAC Program.

Pre-pandemic, offices were following Routine Practices covering hand hygiene, sharps safety, risk management, and personal protective equipment.

Additional precautions are just that, an addition to the routine practice.

Additional precautions are required during respiratory viral outbreaks such as SARS-COV-19.

Dental services are now categorized as either aerosol gas producing (AGP) or non-aerosol gas producing (NAGP) with each having its own lineup of PPE.

Aerosols have always been a known subject in dentistry.

Julian Perez, hosts a panel discussion with Registered Dental Hygienists, Michelle Aubé-Simmonds and Theresa Cullen, exploring their experiences returning to work and providing patient care in a post-COVID-19 world.

To watch the full video on YouTube CLICK HERE

A hand hygiene program is embedded within the contents of an office's IPAC Program and is often ill-defined. Dental offices may be performing hand hygiene tasks, have procured the necessary products and posted directions for proper hand hygiene, however, it goes much further than this.

In the last article, I discussed the need to reflect on DUWL as part of the pre-planning to eventually return to practice once the coronavirus pandemic emergency state is lifted. I received many inquiries on product selection ranging from a regular maintenance program to the ‘oh no my DUWL biofilm is out of control’ action program.

In the current situation of dental office closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there are varying degrees of concerns that dental professionals are facing. Myself, as an RDH working clinically and an IPAC educator, I have a constant barrage of "what’s and if’s" anxiously circling through my mind like a movie stuck on repeat.

maxill is constantly doing research on any and every topic related to Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC). In the latest news releases, it is now common knowledge that a serious virus, the Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), is an evolving situation. The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Public Health Sectors, PIDAC, CDC and WHO are all working diligently to ensure the containment of the virus and public awareness for surveillance. As learned from past outbreaks, (SARS) health care providers play a vital role in risk management and assessment. The role of the dental professional is to implement routine screening methods to identify individuals with acute respiratory infections.

maxill is constantly doing research on any and every topic related to Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC). In the latest news releases, it is now common knowledge that a serious virus, the Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), is an evolving situation. The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Public Health Sectors, PIDAC, CDC and WHO are all working diligently to ensure the containment of the virus and public awareness for surveillance.

The maxill PCD is part of ‘Batch Monitoring’ in the quality assurance of sterilization. Currently Health Canada does not regulate PCDs and therefore the batch monitoring PCD is not listed as a medical device.

When you're using a manufacturer process challenge device for stream sterilization, does a Type V chemical indicator still need to be placed in every package? The best approach to answering this question is to step back and review the job of the chemical indicators.

maxill is proud to introduce the ‘new guy’ in the IPAC line up of products… The Process Challenge Device (PCD). A PCD is a key element in the quality assurance testing of dental office sterilizers. It is used to monitor the performance of the sterilization process. The PCD simulates an equal or greater challenge than the most difficult instrument/item routinely processed in a sterilization cycle. Each day and each cycle used requires the use of a PCD. Adding a more rigorous approach to testing follows best practice within the risk management of the theory of routine practice principles of infection prevention and control.