Question

A dental office is looking to develop an office policy for infection control. The dentists have assigned this task to a dental assistant. What resources would help the dental assistant to develop an office policy for infection control?

Answer 1

Answer

Infection control policies and procedures are the root map and guidelines on how to practice and what and what not to do in dental procedures and practices. Thus, all dental settings, regardless of the level of care provided, must make infection prevention a priority and should be equipped to observe Standard Precautions and other infection prevention recommendations.

There are various valid, standard, and approved resources available that would help to develop an office policy for infection control in particular with dental practices. There are as follows:

1. Every country has it's own Board or the Council (eg: Dental Council of India, Dental Board of Australia, etc) which formulate and implement the guidelines for the best dental practices. It also has formulated various rules, acts, and regulations that mentions about the infection control practices as well.

2. Word Health Organization (WHO) has also published various journals and polices in terms of prevention of infection control in healthcare. This also would be beneficial in formulating the policies in the dental clinic.

3. Wolrd Dental federation could be another resource as they have multiple journals and publications on infection control practices in line with dental practices.

4. American Dental Foundation is indeed an excellent resource to assist with policymaking in the dental clinic. The journal publications stressing the importance of infection control and prevention is amazing. This could even put some light on the process of formulating policies.

5. There are also various infection control authorized checklists available from online that could guide in the process.

There are not the end of the resources but there are a lot more online journals and publications that could put more light on the information on infection control and polices in regard with infection control in dental clinics.