What to know
Dental health care personnel (DHCP) should periodically assess practices in their facility and ensure they are meeting the minimum expectations for safe care.
Background on the Infection Prevention Checklist
The Infection Prevention Checklist is a companion to the Summary of Infection Prevention Practices in Dental Settings: Basic Expectations for Safe Care. The checklist should be used—
- To ensure the dental health care setting has appropriate infection prevention policies and practices in place, including appropriate training and education of DHCP on infection prevention practices, and adequate supplies to allow DHCP to provide safe care and a safe working environment.
- To systematically assess personnel compliance with the expected infection prevention practices and to provide feedback to DHCP regarding performance. Assessment of compliance should be conducted by direct observation of DHCP during the performance of their duties.
DHCP using this checklist should identify all procedures performed in their setting and refer to appropriate sections of this checklist to conduct their evaluation. Certain sections may not apply (e.g., some settings may not perform surgical procedures or use medications in vials, such as for conscious sedation). If the answer to any of the applicable listed questions is no, efforts should be made to determine why the correct practice was not being performed, correct the practice, educate DHCP (if applicable), and reassess the practice to ensure compliance. Consideration should also be made to determine the risk posed to patients by the deficient practice.
Certain infection prevention and control lapses (e.g., re-use of syringes on more than one patient, sterilization failures) can result in bloodborne pathogen transmission and measures to address the lapses should be taken immediately. Identification of such lapses may warrant immediate consultation with the state or local health department and appropriate notification and testing of potentially affected patients.
DHCP may access the checklist through the CDC DentalCheck mobile app or the Infection Prevention Checklist for Dental Settings (fillable form).
Section I lists administrative policies and dental setting practices that should be included in the site-specific written infection prevention and control program with supportive documentation. Section II describes personnel compliance with infection prevention and control practices that fulfill the expectations for dental health care settings. This checklist can serve as an evaluation tool to monitor DHCP compliance with the CDC's recommendations and provide an assurance of quality control.
En español
The Infection Prevention checklist and CDC DentalCheck are accessible in Spanish. The Spanish version of CDC DentalCheck appears if your device's operating system default language is set to Spanish.