Dentists Failing Hand-Hygiene Standards

Mon, 21 Jul 2008

Dentists are failing to follow basic hand-hygiene standards, according to a new US-based study .

A survey carried out on practitioners in New York discovered that recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including washing hands between patients and using alcohol sanitisers with each glove change, are not being followed.

The findings, based on the responses of 234 members of the New York State Dental Association, revealed that many dentists were not washing their hands frequently enough, and even more were not using alcohol-based hand sanitisers as often as recommended.

The study distinguished between washing with soap and water and disinfecting with alcohol sanitisers – the latter being more effective according to the CDC's Guidelines for Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings – 2002.

The majority of dentists who responded (71 per cent) said they washed their hands at the start of the day, while 1 per cent start with disinfecting and another 22 per cent do both, leaving 6 per cent who do neither.

However, 19 per cent admitted that they neither wash nor disinfect their hands between patients, while a further 24 per cent admitted to not cleaning their hands each time they remove their gloves.

Furthermore, a whopping 65 per cent of dentists said they didn't use alcohol sanitizers after removing gloves and a 20 per cent shockingly admitted to not wearing gloves at all.

The findings were published in the July issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association .
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