Infection Control 101: With Practical Links for the Dental Professional

Yes, everyone is up to their eyeballs in coronavirus updates and new guidance. Yes, the amount of work involved in enhancing safety compliance programs can almost be a full-time job. And yes, dental professionals have built more effective, educated practices as a result of these changes. Some practices were already performing at a high level of infection control and safety, and yet others had a much larger gap to traverse to meet the new guidance for treating patients in a pandemic because they never got the infection control basics. Even something as simple as hand hygiene isn’t understood, or is known, but lacks the basics. To successfully navigate this pandemic, and future infection control challenges for that matter, there must be a solid foundation to build on. In other words, you may want to construct the Freedom Tower, but it’s difficult to do it on swampland. To help the dental industry move forward in the name of safety, sometimes we must take a step backward.