DID YOU KNOW?
Office Inspections
Unlike restaurants or cosmetologists, there are no random or regular health inspections for dental offices.
The only time a dental office has a state-mandated inspection is when a patient or staff member files a complaint. Even after a complaint is received, the office is simply contacted by phone, email, or fax to explain the complaint. If the office addresses the issue in a timely manner, no further action is taken. General inspections come only when enough evidence is given to warrant a valid risk to patients. State health bodies do not have the money or manpower to inspect every dental office. Unless serious complaints are made, dental offices go unchecked and patients are left assuming their dentist is following strict safety protocols.
Learn MoreInformed Consent
A dentist, orthodontist, and hygienist are required to get permission before performing any treatment.
This is called informed consent. To give informed consent, the individual concerned must be in possession of all relevant facts.
- Do you have all of the facts about your treatment?
- Have you been informed about all of the risks?
- Has your dentist ever discussed cross-contamination with you?
Cross-contamination is the transmission of bacteria, microorganisms, or other harmful substances from one object (or person) to another.
There is a dirty secret in dentistry.
What you don’t know (what dentists, orthodontists, and hygienists fail to disclose)
could be very hazardous to your health.
Deadly Diseases
Health Complications
Death
DO NO HARM
There is a fancy word for that. Non-maleficence means the a dentist and orthodontist have a duty to refrain from harming the patient.
This key principle is detailed in the American Dental Association’s “Principles of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct” and includes a specific clause about dentists being obligated to keep their knowledge and skills current.
Yet an alarming majority of dentists, orthodontists, and hygienists are stuck in their old ways, and their bad habits can have severe consequences:
HOW WOULD
YOU FEEL?
Imagine receiving this letter from your State Department of Health. This letter is real. You could be the next unlucky recipient of an official government invitation to come get your free blood test because you may have been exposed to hepatitis C, hepatitis B, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), or any number of other infectious diseases while receiving dental treatment.
Wait a minute . . . I can get AIDS from going to the dentist or orthodontist??!
Yes. You should also know that this 2013 case in Oklahoma is not isolated. There are other recent incidents in the USA, United Kingdom, Australia, and elsewhere around the world.
In total, 4,208 patients from Dr. Harrington’s dental practice were tested by the Oklahoma Public Health Laboratory. 90 patients tested positive for hepatitis C, 6 for hepatitis B, and 4 for HIV.
Now you should be very scared.
And luck has nothing to do with it. Hygiene in healthcare is based upon science, and requires rigorous discipline to ensure patient safety. There are specialized decontamination procedures, equipment, and products created to eliminate the risk of cross-contamination.
Is your safety an optional service provided by your dentist, orthodontist, or hygienist??
EXPOSING THE TRUTH
There is always risk of exposure to pathogens for everybody involved in a dental procedure including the dentist, orthodontist, hygienist and patient. This is why dental professionals today wear personal protective equipment such as gloves, masks, and eyewear.
The transmission of infectious material goes both ways. The dentist, orthodontist, and hygienist could get you sick. You could get the dentist, orthodontist, and hygienist sick. Barrier protection such as a disposable mask is designed to prevent this from happening. This most basic type of infection control measure has not always been the norm. It might surprise you to learn that wearing protective equipment such as gloves and masks only became mandatory in 1992.
What happened to change things?
A BRIEF HISTORY LESSON
In 1991, The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that an HIV-positive dentist in Florida transmitted HIV to six of his patients. This was the first confirmed case of HIV transmission in a clinical setting.
In 1992, barrier protection becomes mandatory (gloves, masks, etc.).
Dentists, orthodontists, and hygienists are now required to wear masks and gloves. This level of protection is essential; however, it is only the beginning of the infection control story.
Did you know that not too long ago it was common practice to boil and re-use hypodermic needles?
Now single-use needles are standard. Each patient receives a new needle that is disposed of immediately after use. Everybody has heard that sharing needles is dangerous, and after careful study it was determined that there is no way to properly sterilize a needle due to its narrow design.
These changes all came about with proven science, but more importantly, public awareness of the facts.
Learn More
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
For the most part, dental offices do a commendable job at trying to ensure patients and staff members are safe at all times. But there is an alarming rate of adverse infection control breaches happening around the world. In a dental office, there are certain items that are used on every patient for every procedure that contain grossly underreported risks that are cause for concern. Patients should be informed of these risks to better understand what they are getting into when visiting a dentist or hygienist..
Over the years science has increased patient safety with the advancements of certain products and safety protocols. Not to long ago gloves and masks were optional and hypodermic needles were boiled in water to clean then reused. With the advancement in science and public awareness, none of these practices continue to be followed. Why? Because we now have a better understanding that these practices were unsafe. Today, dentists, orthodontists, and hygienists are still using two items that were designed and used over 40 years ago. The air water syringe and metal air water syringe tips have been proven to be unsafe yet no changes have been made.
We at Dentistry’s Dirty Secret are raising public awareness to let the uninformed public learn what dentists, orthodontists, and hygienist already know, but choose to ignore. When it comes to you or your family, you should be armed with the facts and risks that are associated with visiting your local dentist or orthodontist. Change in policies and dental equipment is not only made by science and technology. Until the public becomes aware of the facts and demands for change, these risks will continue to go unnoticed and unreported for the foreseeable future. Remember, it took almost 11 years to make personal protective equipment mandatory after the HIV epidemic was first reported. Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. We do not want more patients to become sick when this could have been addressed in prior years. Do we want to wait another 11 years to see results? The time to know the truth is now.
The time for action is here. With the help of the public we hope to speed this process along to ensure you and your family receive the safest dental treatment possible.
Air Water Syringe Tips
View principles that should be adhered to by a dentist, orthodontist, and hygienist.
Air Water Syringe
View principles that should be adhered to by a dentist, orthodontist, and hygienist.
Dental Unit Waterlines
View principles that should be adhered to by a dentist, orthodontist, and hygienist.
Infection Control DENTAL
View principles that should be adhered to by a dentist, orthodontist, and hygienist.
Dental Industry News
View principles that should be adhered to by a dentist, orthodontist, and hygienist.
Dental Regulations and Compliance
Here we review CDC, FDA, OSAP, ADA, The Joint Commissions and OSHA.