Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

Nov 26 - Dec 3, 201214 Infection Control Tribune United Kingdom Edition QW091112RG Made in Great Britain Call us 01227 780009 www.quicklase.com £19.50 +vat - 5 Large Syringes - Order your trial kit NOW The latest must have ... British Products . . . AND MORE . . . AND MORE 4w Laser - 8w Laser - Cordless Laser - IntraOral Cameras W ith the rush to improve instrument d e c o n t a m i n a t i o n facilities in general dental practice a frequently over- looked option is centralisation by a Sterile Service Depart- ment. Consider, by the time a practice has spent time de- termining throughput capac- ity calculations for the new washer disinfector and vacu- um steriliser, optimising lay- out, ensuring appropriate wa- ter and electricity supply and factored in the loss of space within the practice premises, it might not seem such a bad idea to let someone else take the strain! In addition there are all the daily, weekly, quarterly and annual tests of the equip- ment, continual staff training and the ever-increasing pile of record keeping… will you and your practice have the capac- ity and the willpower to cope? So, is there another way? In Scotland a third way is in active use in a number of di- rectly managed clinical dental units. Of course these oper- ate under different conditions and patient numbers to many general dental practices but if Tesco and Amazon can deliver to your door step why not den- tal instruments? A series of papers in the British Dental Journal in the late 1980s discussed the diffi- culties in the organisation of the surgery working to imple- ment microbiological (and in- fection prevention) principles. These workers highlighted the nature of dental treatment (aerosol generation), the Na- tional Health Service legacy, surgery and equipment de- sign. The second paper from this group highlighted cen- tralising decontamination into a separate room serviced by hatches from the different surgeries. Perhaps the time has now come to consider an extension of this idea whereby the central in centralisation is now the central sterile supply department located locally? A published report inves- tigating this option is inter- esting since the practitioners approached with an option Centralisation of dental instrument decontamination? Andrew Smith gives his take on the suitability of central sterilisation centres for the decontamination of dental instruments ‘But if Tesco and Amazon can deliver to your door step why not dental in- struments?’