Almost everyone prefers better medical attention and a cleaner environment. As part of their training, health professionals learn basic sterilization protocols and how to keep everything around them sterile. Yet, we don’t know or understand these protocols perfectly.
How do you know if proper hygiene has been maintained? Who sets these protocols? How will I know if I’ve arrived at a sterile dental clinic? How do I approach this? Do I need to educate myself about sterilization protocols, or can I simply trust the practitioner without asking them?
Did you know that the Standards of sterilization are not the same everywhere? Surgery is the most advanced by a wide margin, followed by the Intensive Care Unit, General Ward, and Routine Dental Clinic. At The Dental Bond, one of the best dentists in Mumbai we have an American-trained Oral Surgeon practicing in Dr. Harianawala. As per the American Surgical Association, the staff has received top-notch hygiene training.
You should be happy to know after reading this article you will be able to identify what a clean, hygienic, and sterile dental clinic looks like and how do you identify one!!!
✤ Here’s a checklist to find out how seriously your dentist takes the issue of cross-infection or sterilization protocols seriously.
2. The next area you enter is the operating area where you can see if everything is well kept and clean. It’s always best to have uncluttered countertops. Only the instruments needed must be kept in an organized way. Dental nurses must be dressed professionally in clean uniforms, head caps, and facemasks. All operating staff must be gloved at the time of the procedure.
3. The first step to cutting vegetables is to wash them. Preventing cross-infection in the dental clinic is no different. Your dentist should touch the sterile instruments or your mouth with gloves. Any time the dentist enters or leaves the room, it’s time to replace the gloves.
4. Your dentist or dental nurses should be unwrapping a sealed sterile bag of instruments in front of you. In a sealed bag, the instruments indicate that they have been sterilized. Each patient receives a new set.
5. You must keep the instruments on sterile trays or disposable mats.
6. In the operatory, they require you to use only disposable items, including rinsing glasses, suction tips, paper drapes, paper mats, and gloves.
7. Make sure that the operating room is properly disinfected between patients.
8. You can always ask your dentist or the dental nurses about how they sterilize the instruments. You should also know what kind of equipment are they using to sterilize or disinfect the instruments. Class B Autoclave is a type of sterilizer equipment that disinfects the best and is capable of killing all bacteria and viruses like HIV, Hepatitis, and even the novel Coronavirus. Less than 0.1% of the dentists in Mumbai and even lesser across India use this machinery. A class B Autoclave is the gold standard piece of sterilizing machinery. We at The Dental Bond use Certified European Class B Autoclaves for our sterilization.
9. Ask about how the dentist and dental nurses guarantee that they do not cross infect patients? The dentist’s reaction to this question is your telling. It’s different with a good dentist, as they will be transparent about sharing the procedure to ensure your safety, protection, and well-being. The Dental Bond team has some of the best dentists in Mumbai. To maintain sterilization and hygiene, our dentists take pleasure in explaining and demonstrating the procedures they follow.
It is important for you to feel and be comfortable with your environment and your dentist. From your side, you can research the clinic, visit their website, etc.
10. Ask your dentist where the instruments are sterilized. Ideally, there should be a separate section where the disinfection of instruments is done.
By now you’ve realized it’s the support staff, that is the Dental Nurses are the most important people in maintaining hygiene standards. Of course, these are Dentist driven and guided. So now you know if a dental practice has less staff it’s impossible to perform all the above-mentioned sanitation measures effectively. We at The Dental Bond, happen to be one of the best dentists in Mumbai and are lucky to have professionally trained dental nurses by Dr. Harianawala in our dental clinic.
Nowadays you can know a lot about the dental clinic from their websites. All the best dentists in Mumbai have their own websites.
All the sterilization protocols are dictated by the CDC (Centres of Disease Control and Prevention). It is mandatory for all dentists in the world to follow all these protocols.
If you reside in Mumbai you can visit any best dentists in Mumbai. We The Dental Bond, one of the best dentists in Mumbai are certified by NABH, (UK) (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers).
If you reside in Mumbai you can visit any best dentists in Mumbai. We The Dental Bond, one of the best dentists in Mumbai are certified by NABH, (UK) (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers).