Providing you with high quality orthodontic treatment requires much more than ensuring that your dental aesthetics and bite are excellent.
In a survey of our patients when asked what they value most about our clinic, the vast majority highlighted the overall cleanliness of the facilities. Having a clean and fresh environment is just a reflection of the degree of care we put into all the processes in the clinic.
It is important for you to feel protected and in a safe environment where you can relax. The basic protocols consist of:
- Doctors and clinic staff wear new sterile gloves for each patient.
- For all clinical procedures we use disposable masks or clear protective masks that are changed or disinfected for each patient.
- You as a patient wear protective goggles to avoid splashes of liquids in your eyes or pieces of arches that could damage your eyesight.
- All instruments are disinfected and sterilised after each use, bagged and sealed with the date they were sterilised. If there is a material that has not been used for 3 months, even if the bag is sealed, the process is repeated.
- The material that cannot be sterilised or is not for single use is disinfected in an ultrasound tank to remove any adhesives, saliva, etc. that may have stuck to it. It is then individually bagged.
- The surfaces of the armchairs are disinfected with a disinfectant spray that must be left to act for it to be effective.
- The most sensitive areas of the chair or lamp are covered with plastic or paper covers which are changed for each patient.
Bows, wires and brackets that are no longer useful are disposed of in a special sharps bin that is collected periodically by a waste disposal company. In our clinic we do not recycle brackets from one patient to another, firstly for reasons of hygiene and ethics and secondly because when they are removed with pliers at the end of the treatment the groove is damaged and would cause an undesired inclination or rotation of the teeth of the next patient.
We have two sterilisers and two ultrasonic tanks to speed up the process. A pressurised water steam steriliser and a dry heat steriliser to preserve the hinges of the orthodontic pliers.
All this takes time to prepare the material, a lot of sterilisation bags, disinfectant liquids, goggles, masks, storage space,… but wouldn’t you also do extra work to take care of your family?
When you sit on the couch next time, take a look at the bags on the table, there are days when we start to open the material it seems like Christmas with so many wrappings. It would be great if there was a more eco-friendly way to have your material ready, wouldn’t it? But in the meantime the most important thing is your safety and for us the confidence of knowing that we are following the strictest medical standards.
Do you have any questions about our hygiene protocols? Please leave us a comment and we’ll answer them for you.
