September is National Dental Infection Control Awareness Month

The Organization for Safety, Asepsis and Prevention (OSAP) encourages the dental profession to support the second annual Dental Infection Control Awareness Month in September. This campaign reaffirms and promotes the dental community’s commitment to infection control by adopting the CDC Summary and Checklist and by supporting infection control coordinators.

The goals of Dental Infection Control Awareness Month are to: 

1) Support the adoption of the CDC’s 2016 infection prevention checklist

2) Champion the role of the infection control coordinator

3) Promote patient safety and build patients’ trust in infection control compliance 

Basic Expectations for Safe Care and Companion Checklist is a new (March 2016) document that includes several new recommendations and provides an assessment checklist to evaluate staff compliance.

 

 What the Summary and Checklist Are:

What They Are Not:

Basic infection control expectations for providing safe dental care.


Based on the principles of Standard Precautions and CDC’s Guidelines for Infection Control in Dental Health-Care Settings–2003

 

Companion to CDC’s Guidelines for Infection Control in Dental Health-Care Settings–2003

 

Replacement for the current CDC Guidelines contained in Guidelines for Infection Control in Dental Health-Care Settings–2003

Summary of regulations. CDC is not a regulatory agency and does not develop any rules or regulations. 

Comprehensive document that includes the background, scientific evidence, and rationale for each recommendation

 

The following items are in the Summary and Checklist: 

  1. Six fundamental elements needed to prevent transmission of infectious agents
  2. Key CDC recommendations
  3. Current CDC recommendations from the Guidelines for Infection Control in Dental Health-Care Settings–2003
  4. Additional topics, recommendations and information published since 2003
  5. Assessment checklists to evaluate prevention practices

OSAP supports CDC’s efforts to guide the dental profession in providing the safest care possible. OSAP has several tools and resources specifically designed to help you understand and comply with the CDC Guidelines: 

Resources:

https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/infectioncontrol/pdf/safe-care2.pdf

https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/infectioncontrol/pdf/safe-care-checklist.pdf

https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/infectioncontrol/pdf/dentaleditable_tag508.pdf

https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/infectioncontrol/pdf/recommendations-excerpt.pdf

Return to 2017 Fall AAOM News