Infection control for the dental team

  • M. Martin,
  • M. Fulford &
  • J. Preston
Quintessence £20.00 9781850971320 | ISBN: 978-1-8509-7132-0

This book is part of the ‘Quintessentials’ range and provides a comprehensive overview of the ‘why and how’ of infection control in a well illustrated and concise format. It can easily be read within a few hours. It is suited to all members of the dental team wishing to ensure they have a sufficiently up-to-date understanding of the subject of infection control to enable the implementation of the key points of infection control within their practice.

Exploring the risks of cross infection in the dental environment and identifying infection risks, the first two chapters give the reader an insight into the need for good infection control procedures while highlighting the importance of good standard precautions for all patients. From this, the book then discusses surgery design and its impact on infection control. It gives various examples of acceptable surgery and decontamination layouts, covering most practice set-ups. The following chapter on instrument decontamination provides an in-depth understanding of the fundamental principles of effective decontamination and highlights appropriate limitations of some procedures which may be used in general practice. The chapter on disinfection is a comprehensive account of types of disinfectants used in dentistry, their clinical applications and clear guidelines for their use. Finally a chapter on legal and ethical issues completes the integration of modern infection control in general practice. The appendices include model examples of policies, protocols and checklists as well as an outline of an appropriate training syllabus. This gives the dental team an ideal resource to create individual policies for their practice, ensuring practice procedures and staff inductions are compliant with current standards.

The whole dental team has a duty of care to ensure infection control is followed as a routine and that all new staff members are appropriately trained. The style of this book will allow it to be quickly and easily read by all members of the team and provides a good introduction to a key area of practice for new members of the dental team.