Protecting your team and patients

It is important that dental team members follow a strict cross-infection regime in accordance with current infection control guidelines. This will protect themselves and patients from the risk of cross contamination and prolong the useful life of instrumentation.

The use of thermo washer disinfector dryers is currently a topic of much discussion. If you consider the fact that a member of your dental team is manually cleaning soiled and contaminated medical instruments with sharp protrusions, a task which is neither enticing nor effective, the question 'to have or not to have?' becomes clearer.

So why purchase an accredited thermo washer disinfector manufactured for purpose? The thermo-washer should be manufactured from high grade stainless steel, with the chamber of AISI 316 quality; this is to prevent corrosion by ensuring it can cope with the strong detergents used and the heavy amount of use within a busy dental practice.

Thermo washer disinfectors are sophisticated medical devices. Thorough cleaning is achieved by very high water flow rates, created by a powerful pump at high pressure. Process control is an essential feature that regulates and controls the various stages of the cycle. Temperature is regulated to ensure it is below 45°C during the initial stages to prevent possible coagulation of protein; it is then raised to above 60°C at which point the detergent or cleaning agent is introduced into the process. Detergents are formulated and validated for particular machines and developed to take into account the cleaning efficacy for the cycle profile and the necessity to minimise damage to instruments. Once the cleaning phase is complete the machine drains to waste to prevent any damage from residual detergent. The thermal stage starts by further elevating the temperature, typically to just over 90°C, possibly lower if the manufacturer has selected a longer 'hold' time. Drying is then applied to the instruments by several methods, but to keep cycle times to a minimum, the preferred method is by forcing hot air into the chamber in conjunction with a built in condenser which removes the majority of moisture with just a minimal ingress into the decontamination room.