Dental Hygiene Source ADHA - February 2014 - (Page 33)

Bib-Eze™: The Ideal Solution to Avoid Bib Chain Cross-Contamination by Shannon Pace Brinker, CDA , CDD, Editor in Chief, Contemporary Product Solutions * www.cpsmagazine.com 1 Introduction Shannon Pace Brinker, CDA, is a National and International Speaker and published author. Shannon, Editor in Chief, and her husband Erik, own Contemporary Product Solutions, which provides product reviews for the complete dental team. It is the only dental editorial that combines product review for the whole team. Shannon Pace Brinker, CDA, is a past faculty member at the Dawson Academy and Spear Education. She is an active member of the AACD. Shannon is the ﬁrst auxiliary to sit on the AACD Board of Directors. Shannon was selected one of Dentistry Today's Top 100 Clinicians of 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013. She was also selected as Dental Products Report 25 most inﬂuential women in dentistry and Dr. Bicuspid's Dental Assistant Educator of the year for 2012. She is the Editor in Chief for Contemporary Product Solutions and consultant for many dental manufacturers. For information on dental assistant programs, please contact her at 757-285-9477 or e-mail at shannon@cpsmagazine.com. Education What You Don't Know About the Bacteria on Your Bib Chains Infection control presents the greatest potential threat to dental practices today. The greatest risk, cross-contamination, occurs when bacteria or viruses on one surface are spread to another surface. In dental practices, dental professionals and team members take many precautions to avoid cross-contamination. The use of gloves, disposable materials, and disinfecting products decreases the likelihood of cross-contamination, but it does not eliminate the possibility of infection. It is the responsibility of dental team members and monitoring agencies to prevent the unnecessary spread of infection between patients and staﬀ within a dental practice. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines suggest that dental items contacting only intact skin are at a low risk for transmitting infection.1 Patient napkin holders (i.e., bib chains) are a multiple-use dental product that falls under the "low risk" category for transmitting infection. The CDC guidelines suggest that these items require cleaning and disinfecting with an intermediate- or low-level hospital disinfection product registered with the Environmental Protection Agency.1 With this recommendation, a variety of products and techniques are used among dental practices to disinfect bib chains between patients. For example, many dental practices use surface wipe disinfectants to clean bib chains. However, many clips and chains harbor bacteria in crevices or places that a wipe cannot reach. Another bib chain disinfection technique includes immersion in a hospital grade disinfectant and requires that a dental team member ﬁrst removes debris and then immerses the bib chains for the appropriate length of time.2 This requires disinfecting solution, suﬃcient time between appointments, and multiple bib chains. Autoclaving oﬀers another option to clean bib chains and uses heat to sterilize the equipment. Similar to immersion, autoclaving provides an eﬀective solution, given that prior to autoclaving, all the debris present on the bib chain is removed.2 Autoclaving, however, presents its own problems because of its time consuming and expensive To Order, Call Us Toll-Free: characteristics. This includes more bib chains to accommodate the amount of time it takes to autoclave, as well as the autoclaving equipment.3 These extra steps frequently prevent dental practices from using this as a routine method for sterilization. Bib chains that include any rubber on them are also unable to be autoclaved and limit the types of bib chains available to dental practices.3 Infection Control and Bib Chain Contamination Studies Over the last few years, several studies have examined the relationship between bib chain contamination and infection control. The Dental Advisor published a study by John Molinari, Ph.D, entitled "Microbial Contamination of Patient Napkin Holders," in 2010.4 This study evaluated 1.800.372.4346 8am-9pm, et 33 http://www.cpsmagazine.com http://www.cpsmagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dental Hygiene Source ADHA - February 2014

Dental Hygiene Source ADHA - February 2014
Index
CAO
CE Course for Dental Assistants
Colgate
Coltene Whaledent
Crosstex
DENTSPLY Professional
DENTSPLY Rinn
Desensitizers
Disposables
Dry Mouth
Dux Dental
Equipment & Technology
Floss & Flossers
Fluorides â In Home
Fluorides â In Office
GlaxoSmithKline
Gloves
Handpieces
Healthcare Apparel
HealthLink
Henry Schein Brand
Hu-Friedy
Infection Control
Instruments
Kerr
Medicom
Microflex
Mouthwash
Nordent
Oral-B
Oral Cleaning Aids
Oral Rinse
Patient Education
Pit & Fissure
Power Scaling Inserts
Power Scaling Units
Premier
Preventech
Privileges
Prophy Angles
Prophy Paste
Sultan Healthcare
Sunstar America
Super Specials
Surgical Solutions
StarDental
ToothbrushesâManual
ToothbrushesâPower
Toothpaste
VOCO
Waterpik Technologies
Young

Dental Hygiene Source ADHA - February 2014