Taking a Bite out of Dentistry; A Lean Approach

Session Description: While dental care is considered a routine ambulatory healthcare preventative measure, Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practices are not highly reliable in preventing patient or employee harm in these practice settings. Historical importance of outbreaks in dental practice and poor adherence to sterilization processes, sharps injuries, and standard and transmission-based precautions once aided in the spread of high consequence infectious diseases (HCID) such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Hepatitis B (HBV), and Hepatitis C viruses (HCV). Current outbreaks include contaminated dental unit waterlines (DUWL) leading to nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infections in children.
Reaching, rounding, and engaging in dental programs have uncovered multiple high-risk process breaches with water management, reprocessing, as well as patient or staff exposure. These gaps are exacerbated when serving high-risk, diverse, and select vulnerable populations. A collaborative approach towards evaluating and implementing IPC practices through utilization of lean methodologies and tools such as Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) further drive dental staff education and competency; supported by manufacturer instructions for use and evidence-based guidelines. Supporting not only a health equity and high-quality sustainable process and practice, but most importantly, preventing healthcare-associated infections and dental staff harm through understanding and adherence to infection prevention and control practices.