Michelle Aubé (Simmonds), RDH
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September 13, 2023
Sterilization in various fields, including healthcare and dentistry, plays a critical role in eradicating harmful microorganisms from equipment and instruments to ensure safety. To ascertain the effectiveness of sterilization processes, the implementation of chemical and biological indicators serves as an indispensable practice, providing valuable insights into the process and eventual success of the sterilization procedures.
What Are the Different Types?
Chemical Indicators
There are 6 different types of chemical indicators when it comes to steam sterilization. To ensure a dental office using the correct indicators refer to the governing bodies Infection Prevention and Control guidelines.
Type 1 – Process Indicator
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April 17, 2023
It is no secret that dental clinicians work hours upon hours under the armor of personal protective equipment. For educational facilities and some dental offices, the pandemic PPE layers were not new protocols. For others, it was a novel approach to the safe practice of dentistry.
Are all these layers still required post-pandemic? Why had educational facilities and some offices already expanded their PPE wardrobe before the pandemic?
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April 13, 2023
As dental professionals, it is not new news that enamel falls prey to constant demineralization. In the Enamel 101 of dentistry, we learned the fact that hydroxyapatite can be attacked by acids and break down if there is not a remineralization balance. The ideal balance is to stop acid attacks period.
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April 13, 2023
Writing an IPAC Manual has its challenges. It's not as easy as it seems, as there are many factors to consider before you can call it complete. The following is a list of frequently asked questions, and responses from maxill's own dental educator extraordinaire, Michelle Aube-Simmonds, RDH.
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April 12, 2023
Should leadership be taught in dental school curriculums?
Absolutely! The dentist running a practice must be the ‘scientist’ in dental sciences and deliver quality care. Also, the dentist has to be a ‘business’ savvy individual to ensure the practice’s financial health. What else does the dentist need to be … the team ‘coach’.
It is either the dentist’s role or if the office has an office manager, it may fall upon the manager. Nonetheless, it’s a reality that hand-in-hand with being a practice owner comes leadership. So where does a practice owner ‘learn’ leadership?
It would be fantastic along with DENT 3055 there would be a Leadership 101 course that teaches the practice owner how to navigate the various dynamics of a team to develop and strengthen that team.
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April 12, 2023
Does every office need a DUWL program?
This can be answered by the equipment the office has. There are two types of water delivery systems in a dental office: direct municipal and closed bottle systems.
The direct municipal has no bottle and is only required to purge the DUWL on opening, closing, and between clients.
However, a closed water system as per the MIFU of the manufacturer of the dental chair or bracket table with the attached bottle, states a program is required to include cleaning, disinfecting, and testing.
At this point, a retrofit from municipal to closed is not mandated. It is important to note that offices do not get confused with the word municipal … if the office uses tap water in their closed bottle system that is not considered m
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April 10, 2023
Spring signifies a time of change where colors are plentiful, and every breath delivers fresh air. Dental professionals should use the energy of seasonal change for their own refueling and restructuring.
It goes without saying, dental offices are busy places and the day-to-day operations do not leave much time in anyone’s schedule to re-organize physical spaces in the office as well as the mental compartments of our process of care circuits when treating clients.
What does physical space re-organizing look like? This would be going around the office and removing ALL clutter. The best way to ‘SEE’ if your office and operatories look cluttered is to take a picture. Play an ‘eye-spy’ game with the picture. What do you see that should not be in the picture?
An Untidy Work Area Equates Uncleanliness
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April 07, 2023
Risk Management in a Dental Office
In many provinces, the pivotal moment for IPAC was before the pandemic, in 2017, when public health units and regulatory bodies took a closer look at the practice of IPAC in dentistry to ensure compliance with ‘routine practice’. Before the pandemic, many offices had already swept through their IPAC policies and made enhancements to strengthen their IPAC procedures, decreasing the risk level and satisfying the elements of routine practice. Although in 2017 reading the fine print and deciphering through the grey areas of written standards seemed like a pain in the neck, I look back and say thank you, 2017, for shaking our IPAC world ahead of time.
In this shake-up, dental professionals became more knowledgeable in the theory of IPAC and started initiating structure to IPAC. Again, not that we did not follow IPAC prior, but we did
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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 ...