Don’t you feel like 2002 was just last week? Well, in dentistry, time has changed much. The CDC’s Hand Hygiene Guidelines came out in ’02; back then, you probably weren’t wearing rubber gloves during exams and treatments. Now we often hear about double gloving, and there’s permeability research out there to make sure we know just how effective – or ineffective – rubber gloves are.
Dental Products Report did a cool spread on many areas of dentistry, including infection control (pg. 76-78), in the September 2007 issue. Glass bead sterilizers are noted as another big change. In 2003, the FDA said they were ineffective for sterilization, and rightfully so. Glass beads, also used in making those reflective stripes on the highway, contain hazardous materials – not a good mix for sterilizing dental instruments!
The first recommendations for infection control came out in 1978 from the ADA, urging dentists to refrain from disinfecting instruments with quaternary ammonium compounds, according to DPR‘s article. The ADA’s instrument sterilization guidelines hit the scene in 1981, and infection control for the dental office and lab came out in 1985. The CDC published their first recommendations for infection control in dentistry back in 1986. OSHA piped up with the blood-borne pathogens standard in 1992 to protect workers, and the CDC’s revised and updated Guidelines for Infection Control in Dental Health-Care Settings rolled out in 2003 in MMWR.
Read the DPR 40th Anniversary edition’s article on infection control.