Good Clinical Outcomes Require Infection Control
About This Event
This is a self-paced online CE course designed to address the challenge of infection control in an outpatient setting. The Washington State regulations are referenced as they were designed to be a means of following the well researched but sometimes confusing CDC guidelines on Dental Settings from both 2003, 2016, and up to 2024. The author was chair of infection control for the Washington State Dental Commission for 8 years, is currently on a CDC committee, and was one of the authors of an article regarding a study of Dental Unit Waterlines published in the June 2024 edition of JADA. He is currently on an interdepartmental task force including medicine, nursing, and osteopathy regarding infection control for esthetic medicine in outpatient settings. He has held 30 hearings with stakeholders regarding infection control.
Learning Objectives
- How do you follow the CDC guidelines?
- Sterile versus clean and is that meaningful?
- How big is the problem of exposed instruments, exposed sundries, items in drawers, and exposed surfaces?
- Is designating areas in sterilization stations important?
- Are pests, rodents, and insects, a problem?
- How does transmission work?
- What is the significance of 'soiled' objects or hands?
- How do you control aerosols?
- Is a negative pressure room relevant?
- What do dead legs, biofilms, pathogens, shocking, flushing, testing, and remediation mean about waterlines?
- What testing do sterilizers require?
- What is allowed when using and reusing disposable items?
- What sterilization is required for handpieces?
- Can drug vials be used for multiple uses?
- What is required for handwashing and glove use?
- How does donning and doffing work and why is it important?
