Following the rules of asepsis and antiseptics is a necessary condition for successful dental practice
The staff of dental clinic is constantly at risk of infection with virulent viruses, bacteria and fungal
infections. Even the normal flora of oral cavity may pose a risk to those personnel with decreased immunity, not to mention highly pathogenic microorganisms of the patient that has stomatitis, HIV, tuberculosis, and other common diseases. Taking into account the epidemiological situation, it can be claimed that most of patients who carry contagious diseases, do not know about it.
Moreover, many of those who know about their illness, will never tell the clinic staff about the
infection.
On the other hand, personnel of clinics are often the source of the infection themselves, especially
when it comes to an asymptomatic carrier state or compensated chronic disease.
Main routs of transmission of hospital-acquired infection (HAI)
- Direct-contact transmission occurs during a direct contact with the infected person: during the operation through the hands, instruments, patient’s or personnel’s clothes.
- Indirect-contact transmission involves contact through towels, sanitary
taps, door handles, etc. - Transmission during implantation usually occurs due to a breach of
sterility or if foreign objects remain in the wound. - Airborne transmission of infection involves a contact with a carrier of
a respiratory disease. - Dusty route of infection. Occurs on account of pathogens in dust
particles (tubercle bacillus, staphylococcus).
The consequences of HAI may be quite serious, such as complications after the surgery, as well as infection of the personnel with HIV or hepatitis, clinic closure and continuous lawsuits.
The basic principles of prevention of HAI
Asepsis is the system of measures aimed to prevent infection of the wound, cavity or tissue of
patient during the diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. It includes disinfection and sterilization.
Disinfection is a complex of measures aimed to destroy infectious agents in the environment, i.e. throughout the clinic;
Sterilization is the complete elimination of pathogens, including spores (cysts).
Antiseptics is a process of treatment the infected parts of patient’s body aimed to destroy the pathogen.
In order to prevent the infection of patients and personnel, the rules of asepsis, disinfection, and antiseptics applied to dental clinics must be followed.