Dental Health Q3 Checkup 2016

Why You Should Use Custom Fit Protective Barriers on Your LED Curing Light

Good hygiene is paramount in dentistry. The possibility of infection is heightened by the potential for cross-contamination; while this is always the case in medical spaces, dentistry deals most frequently with saliva, a clear fluid that is not as easily detectable as, for example, blood 1 . The list of harmful bacteria that can be found in saliva is long and scary, including “Mycobacterium tuberculosis, hepatitis B virus, staphylococci, streptococci, cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus types I and II and a number of viruses that infect the upper respiratory tract.” Contamination is especially common, unsurprisingly, with equipment that is placed inside or close to a patient’s mouth—such as the curing light wand. It is safe to say that avoiding cross-contamination is the goal, but what’s the best way to accomplish it? Is Disinfecting Enough? Many practices disinfect their curing light wands after each patient, hoping that this eliminates harmful bacteria, but of course this method is not foolproof. 2 Firstly, there is the possibility for human error. Even when following standard disinfecting procedure, it is possible to miss certain surfaces. Furthermore, a full disinfection after each patient is time-consuming and inefficient, requiring far more manpower. Finally, there have been cases where disinfectant materials, over time, affected the equipment they were meant to protect. In the case of curing light wands, any deficiency in the flow of light or energy can compromise the quality of cure and can lead to tooth sensitivity for your patient and expensive rework for the dentist. Also, any amount of cured composite left on the curing light tip is next to impossible to remove without damaging the tip which will compromise light and energy output. Why a Protective Barrier is Always a Better Option Where disinfectants fail, disposable barriers are the perfect solution. As Drs. McAndrew, Lynch, Pavli, Bannon and Milward pose in the British Dental Journal “ The use of disposable barriers removes the need for repeated autoclaving or disinfecting of light curing tips and is therefore appealing. ” 3 Easy to use and apply, these sleeves eliminate the need for constant cleaning and ensure that whatever is “ necessary to break the chain of infection ” takes place 4 . Assuming that the barrier is not broken or compromised, staff need only to remove the sleeve from the curing light and dispose of it at the end of each patient visit.

LED Curing Light Sleeve with The SureCure Window ™

In addition, Mary Govoni stated that, “ Barriers make sense for many smaller pieces of equipment, such as digital X-ray sensors, intraoral cameras, curing light wands, and toggle-style switches on older patient chairs .” 2 TIDI ® Products, a leader in single-use infection prevention products, is the very first manufacturer to offer custom-fit, disposable curing light barriers — the TIDIShield ® Curing Light Sleeve . Designed to withstand normal use, these barriers ensure the safety and security of your patients. Even more importantly, they will not damage the curing light as disinfectants might do. In fact, the TIDIShield ® Curing Light Sleeve will actually preserve the integrity of your equipment through the use of a SureCure window, which allows the wand to be used to its full capacity, without compromising the depth or quality of cure. Each curing light sleeve comes packaged in its own protective wrapper for true infection prevention and eliminates any risk of cross-contamination between patients. Give your staff and your patients the quality protection they deserve.

1 Surface Barriers http://www.dentaleconomics.com/articles/print/volume-90/issue-1/features/surface-barriers.html

2 Disinfectants or barriers: What is the “right” choice for the treatment room? Mary Govoni, CDA, RDA, RDH, MBA http://www.dentaleconomics.com/articles/print/volume-102/issue-2/practice/disinfectants-or-barriers- what-is-the-right-choice-for-the-treatment-room.html 3 Summary of: The effect of disposable infection control barriers and physical damage on the power output of light curing units and light curing tips S. Dunne1 British Dental Journal 210, 358 - 359 (2011) Published online: 22 April 2011 | doi:10.1038/sj.bdj.2011.290

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4 Infection Prevention in Dental Radiography Author: Fiona M. Collins, BDS, MBA, MA, FPFA Date: 06/12/2012 01:39pm http://www.dentallearning.net/articles/infection-prevention-dental-radiography

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