Essential Dentist Skills: Manual Cleaning Tips and Procedures for Dental Handpieces
Dental handpiece is an essential tool in stomatology treatment. A large number of studies have shown that since most oral clinical operations are performed in the patient’s mouth, the dental handpiece frequently contacts the patient’s saliva, blood, and oral tissues during operation, coupled with the fine structure of the dental handpiece, it is tightly sealed by a metal casing, and the interior is complicated turbine bearings, water and gas pipelines, and cavities of dental handpieces are often a medium for cross infection.
There are three main ways that dental handpieces can cause cross infection.
- During the operation of the dental handpiece in the oral cavity, the surface contamination caused by the patient’s saliva, blood, and dandruff, and the internal pollution of the dental handpiece penetrating into the interior of the dental handpiece through the gap of the dental handpiece itself.
- Air pollution caused by aerosols and droplets with pathogenic microorganisms generated during high-speed rotary cutting of dental handpieces.
- The negative pressure formed when the dental handpiece’s high-speed turbine stops rotating can suck back the pathogenic microorganisms in the patient’s mouth into the dental handpiece and enter the integrated treatment station water and gas pipeline system through the dental handpiece connector, resulting in pollution, or due to accumulation. Bacteria or harmful microorganisms in the water and gas pipelines of the comprehensive treatment platform are breeding and pollute the pipelines.
Investigation of dental handpiece pollution
From 2000 to 2001, 10 stomatological specialist hospitals and 3 tertiary hospitals, secondary hospitals, and primary hospitals with oral clinics were randomly selected from the same city, with a total of 30 hospitals.
Degree of dental handpiece bacteria contamination after use: 110 dental handpieces after clinical use were randomly selected. The total number of bacterial colonies and live bacterial culture counts showed that all dental handpieces had different degrees of bacterial contamination, and the average amount of contaminated bacteria per dental handpiece was 1200. cfu / stick, the range of carrier amount is 102 ~ 104cfu / stick.
Chinese Journal of Preventive Medicine, Vol. 38, No. 6, November 2004
Dental handpiece cleaning and disinfection must attract the attention of the majority of dental practitioners. Due to the particularity of the structure and treatment operation of the dental handpiece, cross-infection is easily caused by incomplete disinfection and sterilization, and effective disinfection cannot be achieved without effective cleaning methods. Cleaning is a critical step before sterilizing medical devices. At present, manual, full-automatic ultrasonic and dental special automatic thermal cleaning / disinfecting machines are commonly used cleaning methods before dental handpiece disinfection and sterilization. Hand washing and disinfection is the most basic cleaning method, and it is also a basic skill that every dentist must master.
Dental handpiece manual cleaning process and key points
- 1. Rinse: Rinse the handpiece under running water to remove the surface pollutants.
2 .Brushing: Soak for 2-5min with multiple enzymes, use a soft brush to brush under the liquid surface, focusing on scrubbing the head of the dental handpiece.
- Rinse, terminal rinse: Rinse or brush under running water. The lumen was flushed with a pressure water gun. Final rinse with pure or soft water
- Disinfection: physical disinfection, water temperature above 90 ° C, time ≥1min. Change gloves after disinfection. Do not soak the handpiece in the disinfectant solution, so as not to corrode the parts inside the handpiece
Change gloves after disinfection. Do not soak the handpiece in the disinfectant solution, so as not to corrode the parts inside the handpiece
- Drying: Use a pressure air gun or a syringe to blow dry the moisture on the surface of the pipe and the bearing of the rotor, or inject 75% ethanol to dry.
- Oil injection: mechanical oil injection: use full automatic oil injection equipment to inject special dental handpiece cleaning lubricant into the dental handpiece
Manual oil injection: Spray type cleaning lubricant should be used.
- Inspection: Check the cleanliness and performance of dental handpieces and equipment after oiling
- Drying: Drying in drying cabinet, temperature 70-90 ℃, time 5-10min
- Inspection: check the cleanliness and performance of the dried dental handpiece by visual inspection or a magnifying glass with a light source
