Cleaning solutions

In the context of dental practices, “decontamination” is defined as the process by which reusable items are rendered safe for further use and for staff to handle and is required in order to minimise the risk of cross-infection between patients and between patients and staff.

Decontamination is an all-encompassing term that involves several stages; cleaning, disinfection, inspection and finally sterilisation.

The decontamination processes required within a dental practice are clearly laid out in the HTM01-05 guidelines and following these protocols is important. But so too is ensuring that the most effective types of cleaning solutions are used as part of your embedded processes.

There are three cleaning methods referred to in HTM01-05; manual, ultrasonic and cleaning using a washer disinfector.

Manual cleaning, though acceptable as a method which meets essential quality standards, is arguably the least effective and certainly the most difficult to validate and the move towards best practice recommends the use of automated processes involving washer disinfectors.