Program Manual - Saint Louis University

personnel to practice and enforce approved infection control procedures and to ensure
that students and clinic personnel are conforming to these guidelines (Excerpted from
the AADS, Journal of Dental Education, Vol. 55, ANO.0, 1991, 621-630).
The Center has adopted the following concepts and procedures which are specifically
required by OSHA.
Universal Precautions
Universal precautions are an approach to infection control. According to this concept,
all human blood and certain other human body fluids are treated as if known to be
infectious for HIV, HBV, or other blood borne pathogens. OSHA requires the use of
universal precautions to prevent contact with blood and other potentially infectious
materials. Other potentially infectious materials include saliva in dental procedures.
Engineering and Work Practice Controls
Engineering controls serve to reduce exposure in the work place by either removing
the hazard or isolating the worker from it. Generally, this is achieved through the use
of equipment designed for a particular purpose. An example of an engineering control
is the sharps-disposal container that isolates the hazard from the employee by
physical means.
Work practice controls reduce the likelihood of exposure through changes in the way
that tasks are performed. This provision reduces risk by requiring that tasks be
performed in the safest manner possible, for example proper hand washing and the
use of the rubber dam in general dental procedures will reduce the possibility of
exposure.
The following engineering and work practice controls will by followed by CADE and are
specified in the OSHA Standard (29 CFR1010.1030).
Hand Washing
All employees must wash their hands before donning gloves and immediately or as
soon as feasible after removal of gloves or other personal protective equipment.
Employees must wash hands and any other skin with soap and water, or flush
mucous membranes with water immediately or as soon as feasible following contact of
such body areas with blood or other potentially infectious materials.
Sharps
Contaminated needles and other contaminated sharps that include exposed ends of
dental wires (including orthodontic arch wires, tie-wires, etc) must not be bent,
recapped, sheared or removed except as noted below. Shearing or breaking of
contaminated needles is prohibited. Contaminated dental anesthetic needles that
need to be reused on the same patient, can only be recapped by an on-handed scoop
technique or by the use of a mechanical device that protects the employee from
potential needle-stick injuries.
Likewise, blunt-tipped irrigating needles (non-sharp) may be recapped by a onehanded
scoop technique or the use of a mechanical device as these needles are also
designed for use during an operative procedure.
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