Patient Safety
Dr. Dalai’s Pediatric Dental Centre has been a pioneer in setting benchmarks to ensure the safety of its patients, doctors and the clinical staff. Sterilisation and safety has always been our top priority even before the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. The sterilisation protocol followed at our centre has been developed following the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) Board Guidelines, the Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry (ISPPD) guidelines as well as the Indian Dental Association (IDA) guidelines.
A. Appointment Schedule
Treatment is provided on a strict appointments-only basis.
- Before any appointment a discussion, over the phone, regarding the child and immediate family’s travel history is carried out. The absence of any COVID-19 related symptoms is confirmed in the same call after which an appointment is given.
- The patient is requested to reach 5 to 10 minutes before the appointment schedule so as to provide the patient, as well as the clinic staff members, sufficient time to wear new PPEs.
- Each appointment is of 30 to 45 minutes in duration during which effective and efficient treatment of the child is carried out.
B. COVID-19 Readiness
- Each patient and their accompanying parents, on reaching the clinic entrance, are requested to sanitise themselves with a foot-controlled sanitisation equipment.
- The clinic assistant then records the child as well as parents’ tempertature using a non-contact infrared thermometer.
- The child as well as their parents are then provided with individual disposable Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits.
- After donning the PPE, the patient is requested to gargle with Betadine solution, following which the patient enters the waiting area of the clinic.
C. Steps in Our Sterilisation Protocol
1. Pre-soaking
All the instruments are washed under running water and detergent soap. Since debris and organic matter is not completely removed by water, all the instruments are soaked in a phenolic compounds for 30 minutes.
2. Cleaning and Scrubbing
After 30 minutes of soaking in the disinfection solution, the instruments are scrubbed and cleaned thoroughly using potent anti-microbial agents and scrubs.
3. Drying and Packaging
The cleaned and scrubbed instruments are then dried and packed in individual transparent, poly-sterilisation, self-sealing pouches. Instruments can be packed individually or in sets based on procedure to be carried out.
4. Sterilisation using Autoclave
The heart of the sterilisation protocol is the sterilisation of the instruments packed in the sealed sterilisation pouches using steam under pressure principle in an Autoclave. It works at 15 lb at 121 degree Celsius for a 20 minutes cycle.
5. Ultraviolet Chamber Storage
The autoclaved sterilised instrument pouches are then stored in a UV chamber to prevent contamination of the pouches until the need to use for patient arises.
D. Air Filtration Method
E. Use of Disposable patient kits
2. Disposable PPE kits to every clinic staff member. Also Dr. Dalai’s Pediatric Dental Centre mandates the use of full-face respirators with filter instead of masks for safer environment for our doctors and assistants during clinical procedures.
