How do we sterlize

This is the common question these days and media has made our population so conscious about the sterilization that every one is asking how do you sterilize your instruments. Many of the patients always scared to visit the dental clinic as they think that the sterilization of the dentist is questionable and they fear from contracting certain diseases from the infected instruments,.. some time they tell the story of some of their relative or the friend who got some disease from the dental instruments. we say that the patient has all the rights to ask the dentist how do you sterilize your equipments. Following are the more commonly asked questions and their answers

How can you sterilize your instruments for each patients?
We have made the individual sets for each patients. A single set of the instrument is packed in an individual pouch and we open the pouch in front of the patient and use the set and then we send it to the sterilization room.

What do you do in the sterilization room?
After every patient the instruments are brought to this room, washed with the antiseptic reagent and then the instrument required for each patient are packed in a special sterilized pouches and sent to the autoclave machine.

What is autoclave machine?
This machine is used to sterilize the instruments under steam pressure. Temperature of 121 C and a pressure of 8psi is maintained for 20 minutes. This is the standard that has been formulated by the WHO and our electronically controlled machine perform the whole function. We have arranged two sterilization machines (autoclaves) and second is used as the backup.

What you do after the instruments are sterilized?
We keep all the instruments pouches in a clean drawer and each set is taken as the patient come and opened in front of him.

Do you use the disposable instruments?
Yes many of the usable are disposable and these things are quite cheep. On each patient following disposable instruments are used. pair of gloves, disposable needle, disposable injection cartridge, saliva suction tube, disposable glass for rinsing of mouth, a sheet of paper that we put on the patient, a disposable cap that we use for the patient undergoing surgery.

How do you sterilize the plastic instruments?
The plastic instruments are dipped in a special chemical for thirty minutes. This chemical has the antibacterial and the anti viral properties. These instruments are then taken out and dried and packed in the individual pouches.

How do you sterilize the small drills that are used on the teeth?

These drills are mostly disposables but there is a special machine called the glass bead sterilizer that is used for some sort of drills.