Bendigo dentists and dental staff understand the importance of maintaining the highest standards of cleanliness and infection control.
The Australian Dental Association and Dental Board of Australia set regulatory standards and guidelines for infection control. Therefore all staff and dentists at our practices strictly comply with these guidelines. In addition, our staff regularly undergo infection control training.
The following infection control protocols are conducted in our Bendigo Dental Group Practice:
We use disposable materials wherever possible. Our dentists and staff use disposable masks and gloves and dispose of them, in-between patients.
We use disposable sleeves on most of our equipment to prevent cross-contamination. After each patient, we remove the disposable sleeves and wipe the equipment with appropriate chemicals. The staff send used instruments to the sterilisation room for sterilising.
Before procedures, our staff place barrier sleeves or covers on instruments that we can’t sterilise. After finishing procedures, we remove the sleeves or coverings and wipe the instruments thoroughly with detergent or an enzymatic agent. This is done in accordance with the Dental Board of Australia and the Australian Dental Association infection control standards. In the sterilising room, we wash the instruments with detergent or an enzymatic agent. We then place them in an ultrasonic bath to remove invisible dirt.
Sterilising procedure at Bendigo Dental Practice
The staff then wash the instruments with clean running water. After this, they wipe and bag them up and put them in the autoclave. An autoclave is a pressure chamber that uses high temperature and high-pressure steam to sterilise the equipment.
Dentists at Bendigo Dental Group use B class autoclaves, to sterilise instruments. Each day we perform tests to check our autoclaves for optimal functionality and record the readings for future reference. Another thing we do is calibrate and validate our sterilisers annually. This procedure ensured the effective sterilisation of all our instruments.
All our invasive dental procedure instruments have tracking code numbers, which we record after each use for future reference. After each use, we send the instruments to the sterilising room for cleaning and processing. At the end of each day, we finally clean and wipe all hard surfaces in the surgery with detergent. The detergent comprises 70 per cent alcohol and some other chemicals, which eradicates any microorganisms.
We clean dental suction lines with a special chemical to get rid of all pathogens in the line. Furthermore, all our staff undergo training in infection control on a regular basis.
If you have any queries about our infection control, please contact our friendly staff.