The Dental Evacuation System – Should You Clean or Disinfect the Suction Lines of Your Dental Care Product?
The dental evacuation system is, perhaps, the single most important dental care product in your entire practice. Today, it is considered to be a necessary component of most of the dental procedures that you will perform. As a result, guaranteed stability and strong suction is highly critical for patient dental procedures. A slow suction and slogging system has the potential to disrupt your productivity and your profits. Every single dental practice has some degree of daily cleaning ritual associated with line cleaning, trap cleaning, and basic line maintenance associated with their dental evacuation system; however, is it best to clean the suction lines of your system or disinfect those lines? In this article, you will learn the answer to that question. If you want to reduce downtime, increase productivity, decrease patient treatment times, and increase the profits of your practice, continue reading to learn how to succeed in these endeavors.
Cross-Contamination
According to research that has been conducted on dental evacuation systems, there is a small possibility that cross-contamination may occur. This stems at the backflow to the suction lines that are used in conjunction with the saliva ejector. This particular dental care product is most commonly utilized in the hygiene rooms of your practice. The dental hygienists that work in these rooms will often instruct your patients to securely place their lips around the tip of the saliva ejector so that the product may remove the fluids quickly and efficiently. The very first study associated with this issue was published in the year of 1993. In the year 2006, the agency known as the Centers for Disease Control released a very specific guideline regarding the use of the saliva ejectors in dental facilities. This guideline states that patients should not be told to place their lips securely around the ejector tip and that, regardless of circumstance, the low-volume suction lines should be disinfected on a daily basis to avoid cross-contamination.
Clean and Disinfect
As a result of the guideline issued by the CDC, we known that the suction lines should be disinfected regularly. In order to maintain the most hygiene practice and ensure the safety of your patients, the disinfecting procedure should be performed in between each patient. The main suction lines in the hygiene rooms should also be cleaned thoroughly each day with a cleaner that is specifically designed for the dental evacuation system that you have in place. This will assist in removing blood, soft tissue, food particles, and other types of debris that may become lodged in the system.
Conclusion
As a result of the information you have been presented with in this article, you now know that both cleaning and disinfecting should be performed on your dental evacuation system. Traditional, chemical-based cleansing agents often leave behind traces of biofilm that have the ability to block your system; however, there are products available, which will not result in this type of blockage. Failure of the dental evacuation system often occurs with little to no warning, leaving the professionals and your patients caught off-guard. This type of issue will cost you time, money, and will result in patient dissatisfaction. For more information on how to clean and disinfect your dental care product, contact Hughes Diversified Dental Repair and Sales today at: 800-773-0800
