After viewing the video, please read about Paradigm Shifts
Download video (mp4)
To download on a PC, right click the above link and select "Save Link As..."
On a mobile device, press and hold your finger on the link until a popup menu appears, and then select "Save link" (or similar) from the menu.
Paradigm shifts in the way oral health care is practiced in the 21st century is undeniable.
So it is with the standard of care for the delivery of dentistry by Kindness in Action. This is particularly the case in reference to the prevention of the spread of infectious diseases.
In the past the norm for processing reusable dental instruments was "cold sterilization". The fact of the matter is there is no such thing possible with a soak in a chemical bath for a 1/2 hour. It is cold disinfection. Not cold sterilization. 1/2 hour cold sterilization is as real as cold fusion. It was better than nothing, but left room to improve.
WIDIOM
Would I Do It On Me?
Ask yourself, would you feel comfortable, having a periosteal elevator that was used in an extraction on a patient in a village with an HIV positive rate of 20%, used on you after a 30 minute soak in Genol? Or would you rather have another that spent 35 minutes in steam under pressure? Another question. What would you do back at your regular clinic if your sterilizer broke down? Things that make you go hmmm.
"We've never had any problems in the past."
Really? And your follow up protocol on post treatment iatrogenic infections is?
"We don't have access to water."
So what do you drink during your day ? Bottled water works great.
"Electricity is unpredictable or non-existent."
How do the locals cook their food? Propane or charcoal fueled stoves work just as well as an electric hot plate.
Sometimes even better, as they heat up the water quicker.
"It is too slow."
Go back to Chemistry 20. Remember the rate limiting phase in a chemical reaction? Well sterilization is the rate limiting process in a KIA clinic. It has to be.
We must do everything we can to insure that we don't leave our KIA patients with bigger health issues than dental disease. And for now, that means sterilization by steam under pressure using a medical grade pressure pot.
