How To Clean And Protect Your Dental Instruments

Dental instruments involve a significant amount of investment, and proper care must be taken for an efficient dental practice. Keeping them sterilized and cleaned will help the dental health professional prevent infection through the instruments. Microbes tend to harbor on the instruments quickly as they penetrate the soft tissues. If you are a dental professional, you may be wondering how to clean and protect your dental hygiene instruments from invisible germs and bacteria. Here is a guide that can help you keep the instruments safe and clean.

Pre-Soak The Instruments

When you have a busy schedule, you may not find time to clean them immediately after the practice. The dirt, such as blood on the instruments, may dry quickly. It can become difficult to remove them after some time. You can avoid this by using spray to keep the instruments moist so that the stains can be easily removed.

Clean Before Sterilizing The Instruments

When there are stains on the instruments, the steam may not be able to contact the surface. You must clean them well to wipe out any visible materials. Following are the recommended methods to clean your dental instruments before sterilizing them.

• Ultrasonic cleaning is a method of passing sound waves in a solution to remove any debris. The enzymes present in the solutions help break down the stains completely.
• Automated instrument washers clean up all the instruments immediately.
• You can manually scrub and clean up your instruments, but it’s time-consuming.

Dry The Dental Instruments

Before you sterilize your instruments in an autoclave, it’s essential you dry them properly. If you put your dental instruments wet, they may come out with moisture. It will also lead to a wet package. The wet instrument may pick microbes from human skin, which can increase the contamination. Hence, you must dry the equipment thoroughly before sending them for sterilization.

Use Autoclave Wraps

Before placing your dental instruments for sterilizer, make sure they are properly covered with wraps and pouches. The sealed package prevents exposure to the air while removing it from the sterilizer. Experts recommend the usage of autoclave wraps for packaging as they help sterilization agents penetrate the cover and, at the same time, withstand harsh conditions.

Don’t Load Many Instruments

When you try to load more instruments in the autoclave to finish the job quicker, it can lead to failed sterilizations. The sterilization agent may not penetrate all the instruments if they are packed with many.

If you run a busy schedule, you may not find time to clean and protect your dental hygiene instruments. In such circumstances, you may get the help of an expert who can sterilize and sharpen your dental instruments to prevent infection.

The author regularly writes about dental instruments and offers a professional help for dental health professionals to sterilize and sharpen their instruments.