With all the recent publicity surrounding AIDS, it's understandable that you might have some concerns about a visit to the dental office and the measures taken to protect your health. Is there a risk that you could be infected with the AIDS virus during a dental visit? The leading national authority, the Centers for Disease Control, says that risk is extremely remote. To put things in perspective, the risk is much greater of dying from an adverse reaction to penicillin than of acquiring AIDS through dental treatment. You put yourself at far greater risk driving to the dental office than you do having dental care.

In the more than 10 years of the AIDS epidemic, billions of dental procedures have been performed safely. The rigorous precautions dentists take do protect you from all infectious diseases, including AIDS.

We welcome your questions about AIDS and our infection control procedures. We want you to be comfortable knowing that we are using all the steps necessary to assure that your dental visit is a safe one. We hope the following information will answer any questions you may have about safety in the dental office.

The virus that causes AIDS is known as the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV. We do know that this virus is less infectious than others, such as the virus for hepatitis B, for which precautions have been taken for years. The human immunodeficiency virus is readily destroyed by disinfection and sterilization measures that dentists regularly use to control the spread of any infection.

To protect your health, we adhere to what is called "universal precautions." That means we use the same protective measures with every patient to prevent transmission of the virus that causes AIDS or any other infectious disease

These universal precautions include:

• wearing gloves, masks and protective eyewear for all patient treatment;
• washing hands before and after each treatment and changing gloves after each patient;
• sterilizing or disinfecting dental instruments after each use;
• cleaning and disinfecting the surfaces in the treatment room and equipment after each patient;
• disposing of needles and other sharp items in special containers;
• properly disposing of waste items and contaminated material.

Some of these precautions are readily visible to you during a dental visit. You'll be able to note the general cleanliness of the office, the use of masks and gloves, special waste containers and our frequent hand washing. Other precautions, such as sterilization and disinfection, are performed before your visit.

Dental offices use various methods to sterilize and disinfect in order to kill bacteria and viruses. Our staff is trained in these procedures and their appropriate use.

There are several acceptable methods of sterilization of instruments. For example, instruments that can withstand high temperature may be sterilized in a steam autoclave by using steamunder pressure or with dry heat in an oven-like environment. Other instruments that can't be heated are scrubbed clean and then sterilized or disinfectedin chemical solutions. These methods of sterilization kill the AIDS virus and other microscopic organisms capable of causing diseases.

We use disinfection procedures on surfaces and equipment that cannot be removed for cleaning and sterilization, such as counter tops, drawer handles, X-ray unit heads and light handles. A chemical agent, registered with the Environmental Protection Agency as a hospital disinfectant, is used in the dental office. Disinfection is done in the treatment room between patients to assure that the operatory is absolutely clean for each patient.

The use of disposable items is another way we maintain a clean and safe office. Many dental materials such as gloves, masks, wipes, paper drapes, needles and scalpel blades are used only once and then disposed of properly.

While testing health care workers to determine their HIV status sounds like and easy solution, it really doesn't protect the patient. Only a positive test has any significance. A negative test provides no assurance that a person isn't actually infected with the HIV virus and infectious to others. That's because the test relies on the presence of antibodies, which can take as long as six months to develop after a person is infected. Testing simply doesn't tell you a person's HIV status today or what might happen nest week. The best way to deal with AIDS is through the use of proper preventive measures and ongoing public education about this disease.

Copyright © 1991 American Dental Association

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