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World wide the number of viral infections such as hepatitis, herpes, HIV, etc. are increasing constantly. Daily, your patients, your staff and you are increasingly exposed to higher infection risks through:
Contact infections from direct exposure to the mouth, blood or saliva of patients;
The spread of infections through cross contamination via hands, instruments or other commonly used materials;
Direct infections due to accidental cutting or punctures with non-sterile instruments.
World-wide euro-standards and Medicine Product Regulation (MepV/ODim)
In the sterilization field Switzerland has ratified a network of Euro-standards and 1998 the Medicine Product Regulation (MepV/ODim) came into force. Recommendations of the Commission for practice hygiene of the SSO can be found in the article of Professor Dr. B. Guggenheim "Sterilization in dental practice: Definitions, procedures, Euro-Standards and recommendations (III)"; Schweiz. Monatsschr. Zahnmed. Vol. 109, P. 1061 (10/1999).
Control of each load and sterilization with TST integrators;
Monthly (or more frequent) control with biological indicators: NBB Spore strips and/or BioviewT -Ampoules;
Do not forget to document your controls: you must be able to prove that you control your sterilization procedures regularly and reliably.
All instruments used for surgical and endodontic treatments must be sterile. Unfortunately sterilization does not always occur, even when the gauges on the sterilizer indicate that the sterilization process is complete.
Scientific studies of the function of sterilizers (tested with biological indicators) show alarming results.
Most sterilization failures occur due to errors by the sterilizer operator, e.g. overloading the sterilizer. The gauges and printers on the sterilizer may indicate that the sterilizer had successfully met all physical parameters, i.e., temperature, pressure and time. There is, however, no indication that a particular valve or air release nozzle may have been blocked. This can lead to the formation of "cool spots" in the sterilization chamber resulting in sterilization failure. An overloaded sterilizer is very often the cause of sterilization failure.
NBB Biotech Biological Indicators contain highly resistant, nonpathogenic micro-organism spores (Bacillus stearothermophilus and Bacillus atrophaeus). These spores are used worldwide in hospital, medical packaging as well as pharmaceutical, food processing and dental industries to verify the effectiveness of sterilization processes. If after sterilization the test organisms are still viable, sterilization did not occur in that particular cycle. There is then the danger that viruses, bacteria, fungus, etc. may remain on the unsterilized material.
Following the introduction of a regular spore testing program, a scientific study from the United States showed that, with sterilizers routinely monitored using biological indicators, the incidence of sterilization failure fell from 8.5% to 1.3%. Regular NBB Biotech Biological sterilization testing can also reduce to a minimum the risks of sterilization failure in your practice.
Number of patients
per week
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Test with biological indicators |
Less than 40 |
monthly |
40 to 60 |
bi-monthly |
more than 60 |
weekly |
|
NBB Biotech Spore strips
Laboratory analysis (biological monitoring)
Bioview™ ampules
In-Office Testing
(biological monitoring)
CHEMICAL indicators
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