Infection Control

Dental professionals spend numerous hours a day dental practices reprocessing dental instruments. We open the box of sterilization pouches, fill them with instruments and send them to the heat and pressure of our autoclaves. How much thought do we put into that little plastic and paper bag?

The two most popular alcohols used as disinfectants are ethyl alcohol (or ethanol) and isopropyl alcohol .

While both show potent germicidal activity, they have different applications in dental/medical environments.

Let's review the similarities and differences between them and understand which one is better suited for your dental facility.

Infection control is an indispensable part of hospital environments and medical settings.

Regular disinfection ensures that working surfaces are kept clean, and potential pathogens like bacteria, viruses, and fungi are eliminated, thus reducing the risk of passing on contamination between patients and between patients and the clinic or hospital staff.

Several types of disinfectants are available in the market, each with a different active component in variable ratios and concentrations.

The choice of disinfectant depends on the spectrum of antimicrobial activity, access, safety factors, handling factors, contact time, and ease of use.

The names Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) and Isopropanol are synonymous.

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.

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 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.

Are there expiry dates/shelf life on sterilization pouches?

Unless indicated by the manufacturer, there are no expiry dates on pouches.

A lot number and the date of manufacture are printed on the boxes.

The date of manufacture is in the form of year month day. 

• example 180410.

Expiry dates are typically linked to a food or chemical registered with Health Canada.