Volume 7 • 2020 • Issue 4

Sterilization has Expanded to MEDICAL DEVICE REPROCESSING The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Guidelines for Infection Control in Dental Health-care Settings —2003 document 1 is still one of the primary resources that provincial dental association (PDA) committees use when developing infection prevention and control (IPAC) standards in their jurisdictions.The document quotes theU.S. reprocessing Standards organization 2 and states, “instrument processing requires multiple steps to achieve sterilization or high-level disinfection. Sterilization is a complex process requiring specialized equipment, adequate space, qualified dental health care professionals who are provided with ongoing training, and regular monitoring for quality assurance.” Although reprocessing was recognized as a complex process in 2003, the term ‘sterilizing’ continues to be used among oral health care professionals when reprocessing reusable instruments and devices.The term ‘medical device reprocessing’ or ‘reprocessing’ more accurately reflects all the necessary steps when preparing instruments and devices for safe reuse. Reprocessing involves all of the following 13 steps: Part 2 The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect he opinions or official policies of the Canadian Dental Association. Dr. Nita Mazurat recently retired as associate professor in the Department of Restorative Dentistry, College of Dentistry, at the University of Manitoba where she was director for Regulatory Compliance, including infection prevention and control. She is the first Canadian dentist to be a member of the CSA Technical Committee on Sterilization and participated in the development of the 2018 national standard for Canadian medical device reprocessing, CAN/CSA-Z314-18. Infection Prevention and Control at the Dental Office Dr. Cecilia Dong recently joined the Division of Prosthodontics at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry,Western University, after working for many years with Dr. Mazurat. Dr. Dong has taught dental students the fundamentals of infection prevention and control and continues to advocate for patient safety and quality of care. 1. Precleaning at point of use 2. Transport to the reprocessing area 3. Preparation and disassembly for cleaning 4. Cleaning, including rinsing 5. Drying 6. Inspecting for cleanliness 7. Checking for functionality 8. Packaging 9. Sterilization 10. Monitoring 11. Documentation (including traceability) 12. Storage 13. Transport for use In Part 1 of this article (see CDAEssentials, Issue 1, 2020, pp 35-41) , we reviewed the first 7 of these reprocessing steps.The remaining steps are reviewed in detail below. Steps for Medical Device Reprocessing in Dental Offices Step 8: Packaging •  Instruments and devices must be packaged for sterilization and maintained in packages during storage until immediately prior to use for patient care. S upporting Y our P ractice 23 Issue 4 | 2020 |