Operatory asepsis is very important to follow while treating patients.

Patients need to be

able to trust the dental environment that they are coming into for their appointments. In our

Fundamentals of Dental Hygiene Laboratory, we were taught the proper methods to ensure

operatory asepsis before, during, and after our patient is in our operatory. We were then tested

out of the proficiency during our clinic time at the College of Dentistry.

It is necessary to follow proper protocol and not to cross-contaminate during patient

treatment. In the case of our clinics, we are not the only person that uses our operatory. On the

days and times that I am not in clinic, it can be used by another hygiene student and by dental

students while they treat patients. When entering my operatory to set up for my clinic patient, I

need to treat it like it could be contaminated. I was not the last person to use it, therefore, I do not

know if it was wiped down correctly before I came back to clinic to treat my patient.

An area I struggled in while learning about operatory asepsis was understanding the need

to flush all water lines before starting treatment. I quickly learned the importance when the safety

instructor as the College of Dentistry ran bacteria cultures after collecting water samples before

and after flushing water lines in my unit. The comparison in bacteria levels that he showed me

after the samples came back from the lab was astonishing. I couldn’t believe that doing a simple

task of flushing lines for two minutes made that much of a difference in the bacteria levels in the

water samples.