covid-19

Knowing more information about choosing the right protective gown hopefully solves any dilemma about selection and usage. The required dental PPE lineup is full and highly influenced by the task. Remember to ‘pick the mask for the task’ and ‘go to town with the right gown!'

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.

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.