Most practices use biologic monitoring weekly or monthly in combination with color-change indicators on each instrument packet and monitoring of the sterilizer gauges and readouts. Every dental care provider should use new gloves for each and every patient. Between patients, your dental team should disinfect all the surfaces they are likely to touch during treatment. This eliminates the possibility of a dentist or auxiliary dental care provider transferring germs from a contaminated surface to the patient. Instead of disinfecting these surfaces between patients, the dentist or dental team member simply removes and discards the barrier and places a new, clean barrier on the surface for the next patient.
Most practices choose to cover some surfaces and disinfect others between patients.
If you are unclear on or uncomfortable with the precautions your dental practice takes to protect you during treatment, talk to your dentist or dental team member about your concerns and ask to see the office s instrument processing area. The overwhelming majority of dental practices work very hard to ensure your safety and health during treatment and will be happy to show you what they do to protect against disease transmission. Feel free to ask questions and communicate any concerns you may have so your dentist, hygienist, or dental assistant can properly address them.