Cold sterilants are chemical solutions used for the purpose of destroying all forms of microbial life including bacterial spores and are used to process heat-sensitive critical and semi-critical dental instruments for reuse. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible…
Hand hygiene in a dental office is critical to preventing disease transmission, and must be performed frequently throughout the day. Dental healthcare personnel must wash their hands with plain soap and water at the start and end of each workday,…
The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) recently announced that International Infection Prevention Week is scheduled for October 16-22, 2016. The goal of the initiative is to raise awareness and to promote infection control and prevention in…
To coincide with World Hand Hygiene Day on May 5th, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) introduced a new campaign called Clean Hands Count to promote hand hygiene in healthcare settings. The aim of the new campaign…
One factor commonly overlooked in choosing a surface disinfectant is the overall safety of the product to the environment and to staff members who are exposed to it daily over many years. Stronger, i.e. more toxic, disinfectants are not necessarily…
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report on April 8th confirming the transmission of Mycobacterium abscessus among 20 pediatric dental patients from contaminated dental unit waterlines (DUWLs). The outbreak was caused by biofilm-contaminated water in…
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published new resources for infection prevention and control in dental settings. Entitled Summary of Infection Prevention Practices in Dental Settings: Basic Expectations for Safe Care, with a March 2016 publication date,…
Dental personnel ask us all the time if chemical indicators are adequate to assess sterilizer functionality. In short, the answer is no. Generally speaking, sterilizer monitoring should include a combination of mechanical, chemical, and biological monitoring. However, while chemical and…
In response to growing alarm surrounding the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne virus spreading rapidly in South America, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued two Zika health advisories, as well as posted online resources about the…
On February 1, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a health advisory warning health practitioners and the public about increasing influenza activity across the nation. The most common flu strain circulating is H1N1, which caused the…
