A STUDY OF CROSS INFECTION CONTROL WITHIN DENTAL LABORATORIES IN MISURATA CITY

Abstract

Infection control is an essential part of dentistry. Potential pathogens can be transported to laboratory via orally soiled impressions and dental prostheses. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitude and behavior of dental laboratories within Misurata city to cross infection control. A survey was conducted to collect data on the cross-infection procedures adopted by 40 dental laboratories within Misurata city from November 2010 to February 2011. The resultant responses to each question of the five-part questionnaire were then analyzed using (SPSS 15.0 for windows). The results of the study demonstrated that the attitudes and procedures of dental laboratories within Misurata city to infection control appeared to be very variable 20% of dental laboratories have documented procedure for infection control. Only 3% of dental laboratories used liquid disinfectants, 15% change their pumice daily and 35% have exhaust systems containing filter. In addition, most of the laboratories (77.5%) devoid running water or separate hand washing facilities. Furthermore, 10% of dental technicians attended infection control training courses and 32.5% believed in immunization against hepatitis B. Moreover, most of dental technicians (55%) were not care about the use of protective measures, during either handling new items or polishing of prostheses. There seems to be a definitive need to provide and distribute formal and obligatory standard of current infection control guidelines and manuals to the dental laboratories.