Health and Safety

Care for the safety of both our staff and our patients is of paramount importance to the practice. As a registered NHS practice we have regular practice inspections to ensure that we meet the national standards for Health and Safety and Cross Infection Control. In addition, Denplan have further benchmarks that must be met to maintain registration.

New guidelines for dentistry have been published in the document "HTM 01-05 Decontamination in the Dental Practice" These guidelines are officially implemented in England, while Wales is expected to adopt a similar scheme in the near future. The practice is constantly reviewing and updating policies, equipment and protocols to move towards the new accepted standards.

Our principle protocols are:-

Clear guidelines for staff on what standards are expected
Regular in-house staff training to ensure that all staff are up to date with the requirements
General Dental Council (GDC) recognised training and registration for all staff where appropriate
External inspections to monitor standards
Staff immunisation program to prevent infectious diseases
Wherever possible, single use, disposable items are used and these are discarded after every patient. These include:
- Gloves
- Cups
- Tissues
- Bibs
- Suction tubes
- Matrix bands
All instruments are thoroughly cleaned, disinfected and sterilised after every patient
Surgery units, surfaces and dental chairs thoroughly disinfected after every patient
Digital X-rays that allow reduced the dose needed, together with constant monitoring of quality to insure image quality

Our head dental nurse, Emily, is responsible for monitoring the practice and ensuring we are complying with the appropriate standards.