Safety Precautions
The safety of our patients and staff are a top priority at Inspire Dental Wellness. Dentistry has been at the forefront of infection control and we want our patients to know we go above and beyond when it comes to this often overlooked aspect of their visit.
Dental Water Lines
The water used during your treatment needs to be clean and filtered, after all, DDS stands for Doctor of Dental Surgery and a procedure like a filling is considered a surgery. Inspire Dental Wellness uses DentaPure Cartridges for dental unit waterline treatment on each of our treatment rooms.
The DentaPure Cartridges reduces bacteria in dental unit waterlines to a level that meets or exceeds the standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the recommendations put forth by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) for safe drinking water.
Our NASA astronauts use the same technology to ensure the water in space is safe for consumption.
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Disinfecting All Surfaces
After every patient we sanitize the entire operatory with a disinfectant. We.Mean.Everything! The chair you sit in, the overhead light, the counters, the drawer handles, the hoses, the computer keyboard, etc.
We go one step further in protecting our patients and team by carefully choosing the disinfectant we use. The most common medical grade disinfectant is called Cavicide. And although it does a great job of killing viruses, including Coronavirus, it takes a full TEN minutes to be fully effective. We use a disinfectant solution called OPTIM1 that takes just ONE minute AND is less harsh on our patients and team. In fact it is graded EPA category 4, the lowest toxicity level, whereas Cavicide is registered with the EPA as a category 2 toxicity level.
Disinfection of Our Instruments
We sterilize all reusable equipment, including dental hand pieces. Dental instruments are sterilized by rinsing them in a solution to disinfect and then put into an autoclave, which is a high pressure steamer that uses heat, pressure and steam, to kill all known viruses. However, autoclaves can lose effectiveness and need to be tested. Most dental offices test weekly or monthly, but at Inspire Dental Wellness we test daily. Can you imagine finding out your dental office sterilizer wasn’t killing all viruses for a week or month? The health of our patients, Team and Doctor are of the utmost importance and we cut no corners.
Air Purification
First and foremost, we are preventing particles from flying into the air by using an extra evacuation system for every patient, in every room. These units are said to evacuate 90% of the aerosols that we are creating in the mouth! You’ll find this same system in use by our Navy on the hospital ships such as the USNS Mercy.
To further clean the air, we are using medical grade air filtration devices by Medify Air. We have 1 unit in every dental operatory and in the reception/front desk area. Each unit can filter the air in an 1800 square foot space each hour, between the 5 of these units we should be filtering the air every 8 minutes at our office. The pre-filter removes hair, fibers and large particles like dander. The high-efficiency H13 HEPA filter is tested to remove 99.97% of particles down to 0.1 microns. This medical-grade filter easily catches pollen, dust mites and other tiny airborne particles you can’t see. A substantial carbon filter with carbon pellets removes toxic odors, smoke, and formaldehyde. The anion generator produces negative ions to charge particles and trap them inside the unit and give our air a fresh feel.
And most importantly, we have had our HVAC system serviced by Allegiance Heating & Cooling, who cleaned the air ducts, used ozone to kill any dust, bacteria, etc living in there, and also added a UV sterilization unit with certified NASA technology that protects the health of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. All the air circulated in the office is in effect being sanitized before you breathe it in. It is very likely that you will notice no “dental office smell” and that your allergies will be minimal or eliminated in our office!
The best defense against disease is information. The more you know, the better equipped you are to make wise decisions about your health care. The more you know about our daily procedures and policies, the more comfortable you will feel. As always, if you have any questions then please do not hesitate to ask.