Infection Prevention & Control (IPAC)

Infection Control in dentistry has always been amongst the highest in the healthcare industry. To date, no patients have contracted Covid-19 at a dental office in Canada.

At Scarborough Dental Care, your heath and safety is our No. 1 priority and we take Infection Prevention and Control extremely seriously. Here’s what we’re doing to ensure the safest environment for our patients and dental team.  

Clean Air Environment 

One thing that’s become clear in the course of the past year is the importance of a clean-air environment. Air purification is a priority to prevent the spread of infectious airborne pathogens – and that’s why we’re proud to be working with Surgically Clean Air™ and Jaspr™ to deliver the highest level of air quality for everyone in our practice.

Medical Grade Air Purifiers – Air Replaced every 5 minutes 

Our treatment rooms and hallway are installed with medical-grade air purifiers to completely  clean operatory air between each patient visit. These air purifiers include HEPA-RX and HEPA H13 filters, which exceed the recommended guidelines for air quality set out by the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario (RCDSO) and the Center for Disease Control. Along with our powerful HVAC system, these air purifiers enable us to completely clean the air in our operatories every 5 minutes, so you know you’re always walking into totally pure air. 

Extraoral Aerosol Suction Machines

We’ve added specialized extra-oral aerosol suction machines in our treatment rooms as an additional layer of protection.

The Ruiwan RD80 vacuums the air and aerosol from your mouth to minimize the amount that goes in the air. Built-in HEPA filters, UVC disinfection lamps and plasma ionizers trap, inactivate, disinfect, and sterilize any viruses & bacteria.

Disinfection and Sterilization

The risk of infection resulting from a dental procedure is extremely low, but it represents an important patient safety consideration. Dentistry processes and procedures have been designed to minimize the risks of transmission of diseases or infections to patients and staff.

The process of keeping instruments clean and eliminating potential infection sources is known as dental sterilization. All dentists, hygienists, and assistants have been trained in dental sterilization and infection prevention as part of their professional education.

Sterilizing Dental Tools

Dental sterilization kills all forms of microbial life on an instrument. While many of our  instruments are only used once and then discarded, some dental tools  require reuse and thus require thorough sterilization.

Dentists follow the guidelines presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which sorts tools into three main categories. Critical instruments such as scalpels and scalers make contact with soft tissue and bone, and can penetrate oral tissue. Semi-critical instruments such as mouth mirrors and impression trays make contact with oral tissue but don’t penetrate that tissue. Finally, non-critical instruments make contact with intact skin rather than tissue or bone. Both critical and semi-critical instruments are fully sterilized between uses. Noncritical tools do not need sterilization but are still disinfected with medical-grade disinfectant to minimize infection risk.

The Sterilization Process

At Scarborough Dental Care, any dental instrument or tool  opened or taken out during your visit is completely sterilized or thrown out after your appointment, regardless of whether it was used or not. Once opened, it’s considered contaminated.

The sterilization process begins with a thorough cleaning in our SciCan Hydrim G4® instrument washer to eliminate most bacteria first. Each patient’s set of instruments are contained within its  own cassette. Wash cycles are validated and then dried using hot air. The Instrument washers are closed and locked, preventing aerosols or vapors being released into the Reprocessing and Sterilization Area.

Each cleaned cassette is then individually wrapped, barcoded, scanned and then placed in our Midmark M11 UltraClave®  dental sterilizers, known as autoclaves. Loose instruments are bagged, sealed, barcoded and scanned before being sterilized. The autoclave utilizes steam sterilization,  which raises the temperature of the instruments to the point where all microbial organisms are killed. 

Error-Proof Sterilization Tracking System 

We utilize a sophisticated, barcoded instrument tracking system to monitor each set of instruments processed, from the beginning to the end of the sterilization cycle. Each step of the process is validated to prevent operator error or omissions, ensuring that everything possible is being done to protect you at all times.

The SterilWize™ system will not allow any instrument to be used in your treatment that has not met our rigorous sterilization standards. 

Our Sterilization Process includes:

• Each sterilizer’s effectiveness is validated daily using Biologic Indicators (BI) tests. 
• Each sterilization cycle is validated for effectiveness, using BI, and EI (Class V) indicators. 
• Each set of instruments is barcoded, tracked and validated, along with automated tracking of each BI Indicator and its associated sterilization cycle. 

The SterilWize™ system certifies that instruments are safe for use only when all aspects of process were successful. If any aspect is incomplete, the system prevents instruments from being scanned out for patient use.

All instruments used in your care will have met or exceeded all requirements.

Thanks to these dental sterilization procedures, you can rest assured knowing that all instruments used during your visit are either brand new – literally right out of the wrapper – or have been disinfected and sterilized thoroughly. The sterilization procedure serves as Scarborough Dental Care's front line of defence against infection, ensuring your health and safety.

Centralized Water Filtration and Backflow Prevention

Have you ever wondered about the water entering your mouth during your dental visit? Scarborough Dental Care uses the VistaClear™ centralized waterline treatment system to deliver filtered procedural water directly to dental unit waterlines in all of our treatment rooms. VistaClear’s submicron filtration removes virtually all microbial contaminants that often reside in city water supplies, providing our valued patients with clean, filtered water for all dental procedures.

VistaClear™ incorporates CSA–certified backflow prevention to ensure that the water entering your mouth during your dental procedure is always new, clean pure water.  

As an added precaution, all water lines are flushed before and after your appointment to eliminate any possibility of backflow.

What Else? Additional Measures to Reduce the Risks of Disease Transmission

A Dedicated Sterilization Area

Your instruments are never stored in the treatment room. Your set of instruments are only retrieved from the Sterile Area of our Sterilization Centre after your room has been thoroughly cleaned & disinfected. Sterilized instruments are opened in your presence for your peace of mind.

We use Corian® solid surface countertops in all clinical areas and throughout our office. Corian’s nonporous, virtually seamless countertops helps us ensure all surfaces are cleaned and disinfected properly.  

Please contact us and ask for Ada if you have any questions regarding our safety or infection control measures. We look forward to seeing you soon!