Thesis & Dissertations

Within healthcare there is an increasing awareness of infection control practices to achieve the best possible patient outcomes and attain standards of clinical excellence. The present study aimed to develop infection control standards for patients at the three Outpatient Dental Clinics, Beirut Arab University and to compare the developed standards with those available. It comprised 50 HCW attending for dental procedures, in addition to 6 in the instrument processing area. "Ideal Dental Clinics Infection Control Structure Standards Checklist" and" Dental Clinics Infection Control Process Standards Assessment sheet "were developed tools. They were tested for content validity and applicability. Data started February 2011. The main findings were; studied clinics were well equipped. Wearing gowns, gloves, and masks as PPE were always used. Hand washing, was always done post but prior to procedure was not always appreciated. Protective eyewear for patient was never used and only few of the studied DHCW used them. DUW were not flushed after each patient. Sharps were always handled cautiously. Pre-mouth rinsing and intra-oral barrier techniques were always used. Heavy duty utility gloves were not used during decontamination. Packaging, Storage and sterilization were performed. Bacteriological studies revealed negative results for pseudomonas aeruginosa and positive for Staphylococcus aureus, epidermidis, and Gram negative bacteria. It was concluded that: All studied clinics were almost well equipped and considered ideal clinics for education except for unavailability of sharp containers and biohazard bags. Infection control practices as hand washing, PPE during dental practice or decontamination, were not always appreciated. Recommendations were; adequate supervision and periodic infection control in-service training programs should be provided, written guidelines for universal precautions should be reachable and strictly adhered during all dental practice. Utilize small pouches for dental instruments packing. Puncture containers with a biohazard label should be located at the point of use.