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Introduction
It is important from the beginning of this course that everyone understands important terms.
Unfortunately, this is an unacceptable definition of "disinfect." Disinfection is not the same as sterilization. For the precise needs of the dental and medical industry, an item is clean if debris, dirt, or visible blood is removed from the surface. Cleaning alone does not remove all the microorganisms, but it is an important first step to the correct sterile procedure. True sterilization involves killing all microorganisms including hardy bacterial spores on a certain surface or instrument. Disinfection lies somewhere in between these two.
The following terms will be used throughout this course i, ii:
Selections from a slide set prepared by the CDC to accompany the CDC "Guidelines for Infection Control in Dental Health-Care Settings - 2003" are included in this course. The slides are intended to give pictorial amplification for this course's text, tables, and diagrams.
Universal Precautions: The same infection control procedures and barrier techniques are determined by the procedure, and are used on all patients, regardless of their disease state. The procedures are designed to prevent transmission of HIV, HBV, and other bloodborne pathogens in health care settings.
Standard Precautions: is a set of combined precautions that include the major components of universal precautions (designed to reduce the risk of transmission of bloodborne pathogens) and body substance isolation (designed to reduce the risk of transmission of pathogens from moist body substances). Similar to universal precautions, standard precautions are used for care of all patients regardless of their diagnoses or personal infectious status.
Sterilization: kills all forms of microbial life.
Disinfection: Destruction of most forms of microorganisms, but not bacterial and mycotic spores, which are highly resistant.
Sanitization: Using chemicals or procedures that reduce the microbial flora to a safe public health level.
Asepsis: Using techniques designed to keep all microorganisms out of the working field and from spreading to other areas.
Disinfectant: A chemical that can be applied on an inanimate object or surface that kills microorganisms.
Antiseptic: A chemical that can be applied on living tissues to kill or inhibit microorganism activity.
The basic aim of infection control is to reduce the number of pathogenic (disease causing) microbes in the field of operation to a level where the body's normal resistance can prevent infection.
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Microorganisms
