Between the Patients

You may wonder what we do between all the patients we see.

We are not just having a cup of coffee.

There is always a lot of preparation work to do.

We pride ourselves on maintaining a very high level of cross infection control and follow nationally set guidelines.

Before the day starts, all surgeries are thoroughly cleaned down, out latest high-speed vacuum autoclaves are put through their test cycles to make sure they are sterilising and functioning correctly before we even start to sterilise any instruments.

Our patient lists are checked allowing us to anticipate the various treatments that will be carried out so that we can plan to have the correct equipment available for every patient.

After every patient we see, we follow a strict protocol.

All Dental chairs are wiped and disinfected as well as all surfaces. All instruments are scrubbed with cleaning solutions at the correct temperature before they are rinsed and checked for cleanliness before they are processed through our vacuum autoclaves. These machines heat all instruments to a very high temperature and steam sterilises them by holding this temperature. The instruments are then cooled and dried in the autoclaves. All instruments are then repackaged into different kits for different procedures and stored in sealed pouches on metal trays with lids. They are all dated with an expiry date when packaged so that we know when they need to be reprocessed if they haven’t been used for a period of time.

This is a costly and time-consuming practice but a very necessary one to make sure that we are working to the highest standards when caring for you.