Why sterilisation procedures are so important
Hygiene is of vital importance in any dental practice and it is one of the standards on which the Care Quality Commission (CQC) judges the quality of a service. Setting high standards of hygiene is a key priority for good dental practices as it can prevent cross infection and minimise any risks to the patients.
If you are looking for a good dental practice Northwich is home to the best. Where possible, the instruments that are used in dental treatments are single use disposable items, so they are completely sterile. However, when it is necessary to use non-disposable instruments, they will undergo rigorous cleaning procedures.
Your Northwich dentist will ensure that instruments are thoroughly cleaned by going through a washer disinfector. When this cycle has finished, the instruments will be sterilised.
Sterilisation is carried out by placing the cleaned and disinfected instruments in an autoclave. Prior to entering the Autoclave the instruments are bagged and placed on a non vacuum cycle. The instruments can remain clean and disinfected within the bag for up to a year.
Look for a Northwich dentist with a dedicated sterilisation room where instruments can be cleaned and sterilised to the highest standards possible.
In addition to ensuring that all instruments are clean and sterile, a good dental practice Northwich based will also consider the general environment of the surgery and treatment area, ensuring that the air quality is good and the occurrence of airborne viruses and bacteria, including the common cold and MRSA is minimised. This can be achieved through the installation of an ultra-violet disinfection system such as Bacticlean.
Sterilisation procedures are extremely important to prevent cross contamination and to ensure that infection rates following surgery are the lowest they can possibly be. A good dentist will have lower than average post-surgical infection rates and high implant success figures, so you can take these into account when choosing your dental practitioner.