Best Practices for Safe Injections

Key points

  • Safe handling of medication and fluid infusion systems prevents healthcare-associated infections among patients.
  • Health care workers should understand and follow recommended infection control practices through training and institutional policies.
A silver dental syringe.

Why it matters

Cases of disease transmission following improper administration of injectable medications have been reported in medical and dental settings.

It is critical that dental health care personnel always follow safe injection practices when preparing and administering injectable medication.

Background

Safe injection practices are a set of measures intended to prevent transmission of infectious diseases between one patient and another, or between a patient and dental health care personnel, during preparation and administration of injectable medications, such as through intravenous or intramuscular routes.

Dental health care personnel most often handle injectable (also called parenteral) medications when administering local anesthesia.

Safe injection practices are a formal element of Standard Precautions.

Recommendations

When using a dental cartridge syringe, needles and anesthetic cartridges are considered single-use disposable items and should be used for one patient only and then discarded. The metal dental cartridge syringe is a reusable item and should be cleaned and heat sterilized between patients.

Visit CDC's Injection Safety for more information about the range of activities aimed at improving injection safety.

Full recommendations on safe injection practices can be found on pages 31–32 of the Guidelines for Infection Control in Dental Health-Care Settings—2003 and CDC's Summary of Infection Prevention Practices in Dental Settings: Basic Expectations for Safe Care.

Did you know?‎

Instrument reprocessing, including for reusable dental syringes, requires a series of steps to ensure that contaminated patient-care items (such as the dental cartridge syringe) are safe for reuse.

Dental anesthetic carpules

Dental health care personnel commonly administer local anesthesia using cartridges of local anesthetic. CDC does not provide a specific recommendation on whether to disinfect the rubber diaphragm on an anesthetic cartridge with alcohol before piercing.

Some manufacturers of dental anesthetic cartridges may advise this practice; in such instances, dental health care personnel should follow the manufacturer's instructions for disinfection.

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Content Source:
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; Division of Oral Health