Patent ID: 7074362

Claim:
A method for sterilizing dental and medical instruments comprising: a) providing an original plastic bag that is larger than is needed to contain an instrument to be sterilized, the bag having a closed end and an opposite open end and the bag being composed of a plastic material that is heat sealable and able to withstand moist heat sterilizing conditions; b) inserting an article to be sterilized into the plastic bag; c) applying a first transverse heat seal to close the bag at a location adjacent the article and simultaneously applying a second transverse heat seal spaced from and parallel to the first heat seal; d) cutting between the heat seals to form a closed, article-containing custom sized bag and a second smaller bag having an open end; e) placing the articl-econtaining custom sized bag into an autoclave; f) holding the article-containing custom sized bag in the autoclave under conditions sufficient to sterilize the article; and g) reserving the second smaller bag and repeating steps bâ€“f in sequence at least one additional time using the second smaller bag as the original bag to form a second closed article-containing custom sized bag and a third smaller bag.