Sterilization: Your Protection Is Our Priority!

As you are probably aware, there is widespread news coverage involving the investigation of a Tulsa oral surgeon for allegedly poor infection control practices and delegation of dental procedures.  As a result of this story, we wanted to reassure all of our highly valued dental patients that our entire staff at Thomas Family Dentistry meet or exceed every CDC recommended infection control procedure to ensure the protection of your health during every visit at our office.

Below are just a few of the things that we do in our practice in terms of infection control:

• All dental staff involved in patient care repeated scrub their hands and use protective barrier garb such as new disposable gloves, masks and safety glasses during each procedure.
• A new set of gloves is used for each patient.
• Before you enter the treatment room, all surfaces, such as the dental chair, instrument tray, dental light, drawer handles and countertops, have been cleaned and decontaminated.
• Non-disposable dental instruments are cleaned and sterilized between patients.  In our office we sterilize instruments using an autoclave heat sterilizer, which is tested by an independent monitoring service to ensure that each instrument is properly sterilized and is in accordance with current CDC recommendations.
• Disposable items like needles or gauze are placed in special bags or containers for special, monitored disposal.
• Our office was one of the first dental offices in Oklahoma to employ the state of the art Stericenter, which is one of the most complete sterilization systems that was designed to help dental professionals maintain a sterile environment easily, safely, and efficiently.

Your well-being is important to me and my staff, which is why we follow stringent infection control procedures and comply with all Oklahoma state regulations for the protection of all of our patients and each one of our staff members.

If you have any questions about any of our procedures or would like to see our Stericenter, give us a call at 918-455-0123!

God Bless,

DRT