Thank you for visiting my surgery! Please note that I do not get any financial benefit of introducing certain brands (although I am starting to feel I should – this blogging is hard work I don’t get paid for!).
Now it might be time to read two of my posts regarding the waterline cleaning so you understand why I posted this video:
I used to work with a very talented oral and maxillofacial surgeon who did not accept just any nurse to be his assistant. The reason for this was that he wanted absolute aseptic environment for the implant surgeries he was performing. In his words
“One either has an aseptic consciousness or doesn’t. It cannot be taught.”
At that time I thought he was exaggerating but I have learned since that he was actually right.
Simplified, the aseptic conscious is an ability to know when surface, instrument, hand is contaminated by bacteria and how and in which order you start to fix it to make it asepsis. It is an ability to know where you can touch without contaminating the gloves when you are treating a patient. It is the key for effective cross infection control in dental practices.
We learn asepsis at dental schools. But there are things you cannot learn by just reading from the book. Sometimes even practice won’t teach us. In my experience aseptic conscious is as hard to learn as singing. If you do not have the gift you will not become a successful singer (the one’s singing in the shower do not count in this comparison!).
A dentist puts her face mask on, washes her hands and puts the gloves on. She gets closer to the patient, adjusts her face mask and uses her little finger to move her hanging fringe to the side of her head…
Err, what went wrong? Pretty much everything after putting the gloves on.
Not understanding what contaminates the clean areas/instruments/hands is a major problem in dentistry. It applies to all the dental professionals – not only the dentists. Even bigger problem is that it is also a subject amongst dental professionals that is hard to bring up if you see a colleague doing something that compromises the cross infection control.
But we must speak about it! How else would they learn asepsis?
Washing hands needs to be done correctly for it to be effective. But washing hands can be replaced by the use of disinfection gel if the hands are not visibly contaminated. But this needs a correct technique too.
All the professional’s should watch this video about washing hands and using the disinfection gel. I bet many of us fail in the technique.
I must point out that in this video they apply far to little of disinfection gel – if you have an automatic dispenser like the ones the hospitals have, trust the amount the dispenser gives you even if it feels too much.
Also in this video they begin the use of disinfection gel in wrong order. The correct technique goes like this:
Important to remember: Never try to speed up the evaporation of the disinfection gel by waving your hands in the air. This will only contaminate your hands with airborne pathogens.
Too many of us professionals fail in either disinfecting the hands or keeping them uncontaminated during the treatments. To prove my point I will tell you my observations.
I have seen
Thank god dental surgeries are pretty much paperless nowadays. The dentists used to check the dental records in the middle of the treatment with the same gloves as they were treating the patient.
A Dentist, hygienist or nurse with pathogen-free hands is every patient’s right to have.
So do pay attention how you get ready for the treatment with each patient. Sometimes we are behind schedule and we cut corners but with this matter you simply cannot.
I will end this post by an information on how all the dental professionals should get ready for the patient (in every day dentistry) and hope you will follow this advise already today.
Before the treatment:
After the treatment:
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