Keeping out of harm’s way

Who can forget ‘Hands, Face, Space’? The coronavirus pandemic has given the entire population a crash course in epidemiology. And still today, a greater awareness of the need and responsibility around ‘spreading germs’ persists. That’s why even in a highly sanitised environment like a dental practice, infection control remains top of everyone’s mind.

There are two possible ways of patients to acquire a blood-borne virus during a visit to the dentist. One, a minor cut through a protective glove could lead to direct exposure of the patient’s blood with that of the dentist, and two, exposure of the patient’s blood to instruments that have been contaminated with blood from a previous patient and not decontaminated correctly before re-use.