Dental office design and waste care management in infection control
Infection control is the most vital and fundamental aspect of health care practice pertaining to the faculties of medicine, surgery, or dentistry. The nature of dental procedures involves occupational exposure to blood and saliva that might carry these microorganisms. Dental health care professionals and dental patients are, therefore, at a high risk for developing infectious diseases. This article emphasizes the importance of infection control in a dental office. It describes the protocol to be followed in a dental clinic setup. Steps in health care waste management have also been discussed. It is extremely important for a dentist to follow a protocol to facilitate cross infection control in the office and to prevent cross contamination between the patients, dentists, assistants, and ancillary staff. Personal protection, decontamination/sterilization of instruments and materials, and formulation of an infection control policy have been discussed.