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We are an accredited dental practice as part of the Quality Innovation Performance Limited's Private Dental Practice Accreditation
Dental Hygiene
Sterilisation and Infection Control. (The Most Important Part of a Dental Surgery).
Infection control procedures form the cornerstone of a dental practice. There are several behind the scenes workings to achieve proper sterilisation of dental instruments and infection control.
As you can see in the photos, our sterilisation area is designed in an open plan way for you to see it directly as you walk through.
Did you know that while 6 monthly checks ups are important for good dental health it is also important for our autoclave to have a 6 monthly check up. Specialist autoclave technicians check and test our autoclave every 6 months.
Its function is also tested by us every single morning before it can be used. Two tests are carried out. One to check that no outside air can leak in through the autoclave door. And the other to check that hot steam can be pushed all the way through a long thin hollow tube. Only after these two tests pass can the autoclave be used.
Another is the ultrasonic bath cleaner which shakes off small debris on the dental instruments before they are put in the autoclave. Even this must pass a daily test every morning before it can be used. A piece of aluminium foil is put in the ultrasonic bath and if it is working properly the machine will cause lots of tiny indentations in the foil which proves it can shake off debris.
A different machine we have also cleans the inside of the handpieces before it is put in the autoclave. It blows air at high pressure through the handpiece just in case any debris may have entered the thin tubing inside the handpiece.
Also, all those little files that are used for root canal therapy are thrown out at the end of a root canal therapy appointment. Root canal files are never reused.
Also, don’t be alarmed if you see that the dental chair you were sitting on is wiped down as soon as you get up at the end of your appointment. This is done after every patient.
Interesting Things You May Not Know About Teeth:
Small and medium sized tooth decay is NOT painful. It only becomes painful when it is so large that it touches the nerve.
Digital dental X-rays have an extremely low radiation output and are important to use to find small and medium sized decay to treat it before it gets too large. Often these sized decay cannot be detected without X-rays. But X-rays are not necessary at every check up appointment.
Tartar builds up the easiest behind the lower front teeth because the saliva ducts are located right behind them.
The upper adult canine teeth are the second most common teeth to get impacted in the jaw after wisdom teeth. This usually starts to happen at about the age of 10. Therefore it important for children to be assessed before the age of 10 to check these. It is often quite easy to treat it early.
It is increasingly common to find children's tooth decay inbetween their second last and last baby back teeth. If your child lets you, flossing the back baby teeth is helpful to avoid this. We know this can be tricky though.