Kate Scheer from W&H talks all things Sterilisers and how to prolong the working life of dental handpieces.
It is well known that dental practices are required to follow stringent infection control procedures and that guidelines are rigorously upheld by the powers that be. With a backdrop of media hype and inflammatory criticism, it is now more important than ever to ensure that your practice’s decontamination facilities are structured to ensure maximum efficiency whilst supporting the effective and profitable functioning of your surgery.
Busy dental practices are increasingly facing the serious challenge of maintaining productivity whilst ensuring the safety of patients and the team. These seem like incompatible goals, so the top priority when looking at decontamination equipment is to ensure that it enhances the safety of the team and patients whilst ensuring fast efficient hygiene processes are put in place and adhered to. Advances in dental processing equipment empower practices to develop safe processes while realizing efficiencies and remaining economical.
Advice from a decontamination equipment specialist such as W&H can help you to understand the wide array of products that are available to assist you. There are several issues faced where decontamination is concerned. It is important that the Dental Team follow a strict cross-infection regime in accordance with local and national guidelines and ‘Best Practice’. All practices should have rigorous hygiene regimes to safeguard the team, patients and maximise longevity of dental instruments, and it is worth regularly reviewing the most effective methods of improving these to meet current guidance and improve the work-flow.
Teon Thermal Washer Disinfector from W&H
The use of washer disinfectors, such as the Teon from W&H is considered ‘Best Practice’, for a number of reasons. A risk assessment will show that a member of the dental team manually cleaning soiled and contaminated medical instruments with sharp protrusions are at increased risk of sharps injuries. In addition a washer disinfector like Teon ensures a reproducible, validatable, medically effective washing process, with the reduced risk of cross infection amongst patients and team.
Accredited washer disinfectors are sophisticated medical devices manufactured for purpose; thorough cleaning is achieved by very high water flow rates at high pressure, these machines use formulated and validated solutions for the particular machine cycles, developed to take into account cleaning efficacy balanced with the necessity to minimise damage to instruments. The cycle must be monitored at all stages and a printed or data record stored.
When using a washer disinfector be aware of the medical standards and guidance demanded as the machine has to reliably and reproducibly process contaminated items in a medical environment. Do not be tempted to use non-recommended detergent or accessories, as they may not be validated to be effective in a dental environment. It is worth taking advice from your instrument and handpiece suppliers to ascertain which machines are approved for use with their products as some chemicals may be harsher and more damaging than others and if your instrumentation is not correctly maintained it may negate your warranty.
The Assistina One from W&H
For those looking to prolong the working life of their handpieces, the ideal solution is to invest in a specialist handpiece maintenance system such as the W&H Assistina. The Assistina is designed to effectively clean and lubricate your handpieces prior to sterilization, without compromising their efficacy, maintaining handpieces for optimal working and increasing their useful life.
When choosing a steriliser, you need to be looking at speed, load size and reliability. Although a non-vacuum process may appear to be acceptable, instruments sterilised in this way cannot be pre-wrapped and are for immediate use only. It is also imperative to ensure your chosen steriliser is designed for effective sterilisation of handpieces and other lumened instruments such as those containing tubes, threads or hinges – a vacuum B process is ideal, giving you peace of mind regardless of the load type being processed.
With a handpiece, the steam must penetrate internally including the small bore internal tubes such as spray water, spray air, drive, exhaust air and gear mechanisms – and this cannot be achieved if there is air remaining, which acts as an insulator. The instrument must be fully purged by the vacuum air removal process, leaving the way clear to facilitate sterilisation. Sterilisers that offer an integrated solution for traceability of the cleaning process make it very easy to be compliant. There are now S type sterilisers, such as the Lyla from W&H, on the market that offer the opportunity to upgrade to a vacuum B if required in the future to suit your practice needs.
Following a vacuum B process, pouched sterilized loads can be stored for up to a year according to current guidance. The W&H Seal2 is a convenient user-friendly choice for fast, easy bagging of your instruments.
Seal2 by W&H
A good reliable sterilizer is essential to the running of any dental practice.
The Lisa vacuum B sterilizer from W&H offers a raft of benefits, it is intuitive, reliable and easy to use thanks to an advanced user interface and user oriented menu structure. Lisa currently offers a B cycle in 28 minutes for an average load of 2kg and a 13 minute fast cycle for unwrapped instruments, improving efficiency and saving time. The enhanced ECO dry system is gentle on your instruments, increasing their working life.
The Lisa Steriliser from W&H
Lisa offers real connectivity with enhanced traceability and ergonomics thanks to the Wi-Fi connection and W&H Lisa app for Real Time Remote Monitoring. The programmable cycle start ensures improved workflow optimization and time saving whilst the automatic water filling makes it easy and quick to use.
W&H offers high quality decontamination products and backup, with a fully trained team of service engineers nationwide who will support customers today and in the future. With W&H you can be confident in the knowledge that you will receive the assistance you require in selecting the right products & services to suit your individual needs.
For more information regarding the issues of decontamination within your practice, please contact us. Don’t take risks with decontamination; wise investment means a safer, more efficient future.
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