Sterilization

What is Sterilization?

Everybody worries before visiting a dental clinic in particular for its hygiene and contamination. This is a common panic due to reuse of instruments. Raga Dental Center, Thanjavur follows recommended guidelines and infection control policies for sterilization of all instruments used in dentistry.

What is the purpose of pouching instruments before sterilization?

Pouching or pouching of instruments is an important part that ensures the protection of sterilized articles from recontamination of micro bacteria during storage and transport. Purpose of pouching of instruments before sterilization includes:

Containment of good kept in pouch through the different phases of the decontamination process.

• To take place sterilization process
• Protect the goods during sterilization and keep safe during transportation
• To keep sterile at the point of use
• Make sure that single instrument or small load is kept in a peel-apart pouch with transparent front and paperback
• To ensure the goods sterility remains after autoclave demands sealing of peel-apart pouches
• To confirm adhesive used in self-sealing pouch through a heat sealing machine

What are the methods of sterilization followed?

The word ‘sterile’ is used as an absolute term; there is no almost sterile or partially sterile. All reusable instruments either critical or semi-critical those come in direct contact with patient’s saliva, mucous and blood. This demands destruction of microbial forms including bacterial spores by sterilization. Sterilization in dental clinic practices the following three types:

• Steam sterilization — dental instruments and other accessories are sterilized in autoclaves by means of steam at 250 degrees F to 273 degrees F under pressure. Distilled water is to be preferred instead of normal tap water to resist corrosion and pitting of instruments. Drying period may be between 25 and 40 minutes.
• Dry heat sterilization — it is operated by heating up the air and forcing the heated air to the instruments. The temperature required for this purpose is between 300 and 375 degrees F for a preset time of 12 to 150 minutes depending on manufacturer’s instruction.
• Unsaturated chemical vapor sterilization — in this system a combination of acetone, ketone, formaldehyde, alcohol, and water is used to form vapor for sterilization. The combination of temperature, pressure and preset time are the three major parameters to achieve sterilization. Pressure has to be fixed at 20 psi, the temperature should rise to 270 degrees F and time band should be approximately 20 to 40 minutes.

All items used for sterilization must be followed the manufacturer’s instruction, specified temperature and pressure for each item and other instructions as well for containers, wrappers, pouches, chemical or biological indicators. Glass bead or toaster ovens are not considered as sterilizing device because that could jeopardize patient safety.

Recommendations of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that all instruments should be wrapped, packaged, pouched or placed into proper container system for sterilization. Packaging material permits penetration of the sterilizing agent and maintains sterility after sterilization while in transport. Packaging goods should be so designed for the particular type of sterilization process.

Why choose Raga Dental Centre?

Raga Dental Centre follows CDC’s recommendation meticulously to protect you from all possible infections, and contaminations. It is our first and foremost target to provide you a complete hygiene environment to let you choose our clinic.