Dentist question

ailuro2

We go as a family and our dentist changes gloves between each of us, she's only using tools and maybe pulling a gum out of the way, I don't see how she can swop any more germs between us than we would when giving each other a kiss, but it's nice to know she's got good hygiene habits that she follows no matter who was in the chair last.

Quintus

welshdent wrote: »

tbh I think it should be taken for granted that they change their gloves

I would generally agree.

If you're so up tight about it, why don't you just ask your dentist directly if they do. Check the dustbin in his surgery when you go in if you want. If its full of old latex gloves then they probably do remove the gloves and don't cause cross infection with all the other patients.

violetta

In the 'olden days' (early 70s) when I was a teenager, our dentist had instruments that smelled of bad breath and my Mum once noticed a blob of blood (not hers as he hadn't started on her at that point) on the drill equipment. He used to have a main surgery and two anterooms with dentist's chairs in, and whizz between the three 'surgeries' trying to catch up - he was always overrunning - treating three patients at once, eg give an injection, whizz off to another patient, whizz back in and extract the tooth etc etc. No gloves were ever involved, and no way did he stop long enough to even wash his hands. Then, everyone was too in awe of the dentist to question any of this - as a professional he must be doing things correctly, so you thought - and most people had never heard of AIDS or worried about cross infection.

It seems horrifying, looking back, but 40 years ago no-one batted an eyelid at the time, just said to each other it was all a bit yukky once we got home. As I said, you simply trusted him as a professional, and he was a nice man if not a very salubrious one!

Toothsmith

When I was training in the mid 80s, we only wore gloves for extractions & oral surgery.

AIDS changed a lot of things. Even though the wearing of gloves, and changing them between patients does nothing to protect anyone from AIDS in a dental practice! The only way you risk catching AIDS in a dental practice is by having unprotected sex with someone who's HIV +ve in there!

Hepatitis is the thing you could catch from dirty instruments, but the cleaning processes in an average dental practice would eliminate that risk.

One thing that dentists are being beaten with at the moment is vCJD.

Despite the fact that in 20+yrs since it first came to our attention, only 168 people have dieds of the human form of mad cow disease, dental practices are being issued with new guidance to change their cross infection proceedures to account for the 'risk' of passing this between patients!!!

(none of the people who have had vCJD caught it through dental work)

These measures involve building dedicated decontamination rooms in dental practices (which in small practices are impossible, so they'll be forced to close - and in medium/large practices would mean using a dentist's surgery, so they would lose a dentist). They involve buying glorified £5k dishwashers, which at the moment are so unreliable that they are forever breaking down. And their cycle is so slow, that every dental practice will need about 3 times the equipment they have at the moment.

Plus - we all know how things deteriorate when they go through a dishwasher regularly - this will happen to dental equipment as well. So replacement equipment will be needed more often.

These peasures will literally add thousands of pounds to the yearly running cost of UK dental practices.

This year, the NHS is paying no increase in NHS fees - so what's going to happen to NHS dentistry?

In private dentistry, it is the patient who pays the running costs of the practice - so what's going to happen here?

The document is called HTM 01-05

Google it and have a read! Then write to your MP and ask why such a pointless piece of rubbish is being brought in.

Rant over!

elfen

Aren't autoclaves better than stupid giant dishwashers? And proper hygiene by the staff - not just the dentists but the dental nurses too. Mine put her gloves on as I was coming in, and put a shield in case any bits came up....and the practise looked amn clean too, and smelt clean, and that's always important....I remember the smell of disinfectant and it always freaked me out.

Toothsmith

Autoclaves are to be used after the dishwashers.

Currently most places use ultrasonic ccleaners before autoclaving. These have much more evidence to back them up than the washer/disinfectors.

But that's not stopping the DoH imposing this document on the professsion.

jugglebug

elfen wrote: »

Aren't autoclaves better than stupid giant dishwashers? And proper hygiene by the staff - not just the dentists but the dental nurses too. Mine put her gloves on as I was coming in, and put a shield in case any bits came up....and the practise looked amn clean too, and smelt clean, and that's always important....I remember the smell of disinfectant and it always freaked me out.

The washer disinfectors are in addition to autoclaves
They are supposed to clean the contaminants off the instruments before the autoclave sterilises them. Avoiding the need for a human to scrub them as is done now (or ultrasonic bath)
In practice they have such a high temerature drying cycle that anything not removed totally gets baked on hard, rendering it impossible for the autoclave to sterilise properly, so then you need to chip the stuff off or (as HTM 0105 suggests) bin the item. But thats ok as the government think that there is a 1% efficiency saving to be had in NHS practice to the extra costs wont add up too much. (despite the many £££ these machines cost to buy, install and run)
The doc is riddled with rubbish.
If we sterilise something and it isnt used we have to resterilise it within a few months (I forget the actual time as they changed it between drafts ) Thats fine but my local hospital has a 12 month expiry on its packs, despite the same procedure.
Do the bacteria know they are in hospital? "Oh hell, we are in the max fax dept lads, run for it, quick there is a nice safe dental surgery up the road!" :rotfl:
Ill thought out nonsense in the main and will do nothing to protect folks who attend dodgy tooth whitening centres, facial piercing shops, tattooists etc etc (Although as toothsmith says it is a infinitesimally small risk that has never actually been proven anyhow)

maysmummy

Toothsmith wrote: »

They involve buying glorified £5k dishwashers, which at the moment are so unreliable that they are forever breaking down. And their cycle is so slow, that every dental practice will need about 3 times the equipment they have at the moment.

LOL, toothsmith. I work in a salaried job for the NHS and our washer didinfector breaks down on an almost daily basis! I feel sorry for the bloke who comes to mend it as he is running out of excuses-his last one being that we 'opened the door during a power cut'
With milions of pounds worth of servers in the building, I think that we would know if there had been a power cut!:rotfl::rotfl:

Teerah

jugglebug wrote: »

If we sterilise something and it isnt used we have to resterilise it within a few months (I forget the actual time as they changed it between drafts ) Thats fine but my local hospital has a 12 month expiry on its packs, despite the same procedure.

Its even worse here in N.Ireland, we have to resterilise anything not used the same day :mad:

Kaz2904

Hmm, my dentist didn't change her gloves between my DS, My DD and I. I'm not overly concerned although DD now has an abcess (bleurgh!). As far as I see it, we could catch gastroenteritis from each other- but hey we live together and I kiss them goodnight!
Just for goodness sake, don't let me see spit on they gloves. Wipe 'em on your trousers if you have to! Just no spit!