Are you planning to invest in an autoclave for your dental practice? Do you know the importance of sterilisation in the dental industry?
Dental sterilisers or autoclaves play one of the most important roles in running your dental practice successfully.
The importance of cleaning every dental handpiece in your practice cannot be overestimated.
The main concern here is preventing the spread of infections from patient to patient.
By sterilising every dental handpiece in your clinic, you decrease the risk of infection for every patient you come across.
Let's take a look in more detail about autoclaves and how important they are in the dental industry.
- What Are Autoclaves?
- The Importance Of Autoclaves
- How Does An Autoclave Improve Dental Sterilisation?
- Autoclaving Your Dental Handpieces
What Are Autoclaves?
An autoclave is a sterilisation machine that is used to remove biohazardous waste from the dental equipment in your dental practice.
These machines subject these items to pressurised steam to get rid of the biohazardous waste from the surface of these items.
Charles Chamberland invented the autoclave in 1879. This machine is commonly known today as a steam sterilisation machine.
One cannot overemphasise the importance and benefits of autoclave technology. They are an indispensable part of every dental practice today.
The Importance Of Autoclaves
After every dental procedure, it is a standard operating practice to follow the correct hygienic steps to make sure that all dental handpieces are cleaned and sterilised before the next use.
The dental practice should ensure that every dental handpiece is correctly sterilised before they are used again. That's where an autoclave comes in.
An autoclave plays an important part in the sterilisation process.
The machine will heat the handpieces and tools above the boiling point to disinfect and sterilise them.
This procedure should be imperative in every dental practice to make sure they deliver safe and non-life threatening procedures in the future.
The bacteria and other microbes in dental instruments cannot be decontaminated by merely using water, a detergent, and a brush.
These tools should be sterilised by using an autoclave before they are used again on another patient.
If the sterilisation process is not satisfactory or completed, you run the risk of spreading harmful microorganisms to patients who visit your dental practice.
You will be exposing your patients to life-threatening bacteria and microbes as a result.
That's why you need to invest in a dental steriliser or an autoclave for your practice.
How Does An Autoclave Improve Dental Sterilisation?
It's important to know how dental sterilisation works - whether you are using a benchtop autoclave or a room-sized bulk autoclave.
All autoclaves work on similar principles - which is similar to how a pressure cooker works.
The door of the autoclave is locked to create a sealed chamber so that the air within the chamber of the machine is replaced by steam.
The steam will be pressurised to reach the desired sterilisation temperature.
The process operates in two ways such as the fast exhaust and slow exhaust method.
The first is the fast exhaust method where the autoclave chamber ensures high temperature and pressure for a specific timeframe.
The slow exhaust prevents the sterilised liquid from boiling - which exhausts slowly at the end of the cycle and cooling the heated liquid.
The idea behind this procedure is that organisms could survive at a reasonable temperature but when the organisms are exposed to the right level of heat, they will eventually die.
That's why the autoclave should generate the right conditions to destroy bacteria and other microbes when sterilising dental handpieces.
Autoclaving Your Dental Handpieces
It's important to autoclave your dental equipment to maintain a reputable and prosperous dental practice.
When a dental handpiece isn't autoclaved after every use, it may act as a source of cross-contamination.
Many dental practices don't autoclave dental handpieces after every use because regular autoclaving can ruin the handpiece itself, especially the sheath and turbine.
Since these tools are quite expensive, most practices are hesitant when it comes to cleaning them after every patient.
However, if you maintain the equipment properly, you can increase the lifespan of these tools by investing in high-quality dental equipment with a longer lifespan.
It is also important to make sure you buy high-quality equipment as this will also help you financially in the long run.
If you are searching for the best autoclave supplier in Australia, then look no further than Medical Equipment Services Australia.
We were originally established in 1952 in order to provide electro-medical products to healthcare professionals across the country.
The company (Medical Equipment Services) was acquired by Medical Equipment Australia in 2009. Since then, we have also expanded into the dental industry.
For all your medical and dental supply requirements, please call us today on 1300 342 013 or contact us through our website.
