Infection Control for Dental Professionals: The California Requirement
Course #58583 - $18 -
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
Effective infection control techniques are critical to reducing the incidence of infections in dental facilities. Antiseptic techniques and antibiotics will kill micro-organisms, while proper hand hygiene will block their transmission. Gloves, gowns, and masks remove dental professionals from the transmission cycle by protecting them from contact with micro-organisms. Contact Precautions and isolation techniques help patients avoid being vectors of transmission. Lastly, ensuring that dental professionals are immune or vaccinated can help decrease the availability of potential hosts.
- INTRODUCTION
- OSHA AND CAL/OSHA REGULATIONS
- MODES OF TRANSMISSION
- BLOODBORNE PATHOGENS
- PREVENTION STRATEGIES
- ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL MEASURES
- ENGINEERING AND WORK PRACTICE CONTROLS
- PROTECTING DENTAL HEALTHCARE WORKERS
- CONCLUSION
- DENTAL BOARD OF CALIFORNIA GENERAL PROVISIONS: SECTION 1005. MINIMUM STANDARDS FOR INFECTION CONTROL
- CAL/OSHA COVID-19 STANDARD
- Works Cited
This course is designed for all dentists, dental hygienists, and dental assistants in all practice settings, particularly those practicing in California.
The purpose of this course is to familiarize dental professionals with infection control techniques in order to minimize the risks of microbial transmission in the dental healthcare setting.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Outline OSHA and Cal/OSHA regulations that impact the provision of dental care.
- Analyze potential modes of transmission and pathogens that can result in infection in dental facilities.
- Discuss potential prevention strategies for infection control, including the use of precautions, hand hygiene, and personal protective equipment.
- Describe effective environmental control measures that should be applied in dental care.
- Identify steps that should be taken to protect dental professionals, including vaccination, education, and exposure responses.
William E. Frey, DDS, MS, FICD, graduated from the University of California School of Dentistry, San Francisco, California, in 1966. In 1975, he completed residency training in Periodontics and received a Master's degree from George Washington University.
Dr. Frey retired from the United States Army Dental Corps in 1989 after 22 years of service. Throughout the course of his professional career, he has continuously practiced dentistry, the first 7 years as a general dentist and the past more than 40 as a periodontist. His military experience included the command of a networked Dental Activity consisting of five dental clinics. In his last assignment, he was in charge of a 38-chair facility. Colonel Frey was selected by the Army to serve on two separate occasions as the Chair of the Periodontal Department in Army General Dentistry Residency Training Programs.
Dr. Frey is the founder and president of Perio Plus, a practice management firm specializing in creating individually-designed hygiene and periodontal care programs for general dentists. He is also the creator of the Inspector Gum patient education series.
Contributing faculty, William E. Frey, DDS, MS, FICD, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Mark J. Szarejko, DDS, FAGD
The division planner has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Sarah Campbell
The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.
Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.
It is the policy of NetCE not to accept commercial support. Furthermore, commercial interests are prohibited from distributing or providing access to this activity to learners.
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The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.
Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.