Infection Control

Dental offices are no strangers to the potential of having an unannounced IPAC Public Health inspection. Now dental offices can add the possibility of the Ministry of Labour randomly arriving to the dental practice to inspect the offices pandemic plan and compliance. The difference between the two inspections is Public Health is mandated to protect the public and the Ministry of Labour for the employee/worker safety. Every workplace must be free of hazards to the employee, this includes infection control with the SARS-COV-2 being an infectious hazard. The missions of both authorities do overlap in the end with the result being overall human safety.

Spread your infection control knowledge and slow the spread of COVID-19 - Dental hygienists are experts in prevention—yes, prevention of disease, but also of infection. By incorporating basic PPE and hand hygiene information into our patient education, we can slow the spread of COVID-19 while a vaccine is developed.

On 24 March 2020, the World Health Organization warned that the “chronic global shortage of personal protective gear is among the most urgent threats to virus containment efforts” in the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.1 In response, actions have been taken by agencies and institutions to conserve current supplies while attempting to procure more personal protective equipment (PPE).

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.

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.