Foundations: Building the Safest Dental Visit

Course overview

Foundations: Building the Safest Dental Visit is a web-based, interactive training designed to increase adherence to established infection prevention and control guidelines. This course provides an overview of the basic expectations for safe care—the principles of infection prevention and control that form the basis for CDC recommendations for dental health care settings.

Foundations can typically be completed in 3 hours or less if taken in one session. The training is designed to save learners' progress across multiple sessions, so learners can take the course at their own pace.

Foundations is a free resource. The course is available through CDC TRAIN, an affiliate of the Public Health Foundation's TRAIN Learning Network. This learning network provides access to more than 1,000 courses developed by the CDC programs, grantees, and other funded partners.

Signing into CDC's Training Group

If you have a TRAIN account from another affiliate, like a state health department, you may need to add the CDC group to your profile for the training to appear. To do so, select your name at the top right, then “Your Profile,” and then the Manage Groups tab. Select the “Join Another Group” button, and search for CDC.

Foundations training modules

• Module 1: Foundations of Infection Prevention and Control introduces infection prevention and control for dental settings; reviews existing guidelines, recommendations, and resources; and describes the fundamentals of evaluating dental infection prevention programs.
• Module 2: Protecting Patients, Protecting Yourself reviews hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, respiratory hygiene/cough etiquette, sharps safety, and safe injection practices.
• Module 3: Sterilization, Disinfection, and the Dental Environment reviews the sterilization process, environmental infection prevention and control guidelines, and dental unit waterline safety.

Who this training is for

• Dental health care personnel.
• Infection prevention coordinators.
• Dental educators.
• Dental consultants.
• Dental, dental hygiene, and dental assisting students.

Continuing education units

This continuing education activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the standards of the American Dental Association (ADA) Continuing Education Recognition Program (CERP) through joint efforts between the Association for Dental Safety (ADS), formerly known as the Organization for Safety, Asepsis, and Prevention, and CDC's Division of Oral Health.

ADS is a recognized CE provider through ADA CERP. ADA CERP is a service of the ADA to assist dental professionals in identifying quality providers of continuing dental education. ADA CERP does not approve or endorse individual courses or instructors, nor does it imply acceptance of credit hours by boards of dentistry. ADS has designated this activity for 3 CE credits.

Learners who complete the Foundations training will receive a certificate of completion through CDC TRAIN. Specific instructions for obtaining CE credit are located on the Foundations course completion certificate. Learners do not need to be a member of ADS to receive CE credit but may need to register on that organization's website.

Who is ADS?

ADS, a dental membership association, is a community of clinicians, educators, researchers, and industry representatives who advocate for safe and infection-free delivery of oral health care. Founded in 1984, ADS is dedicated to education, research, service, and policy development to promote safety and the control of infectious diseases in dental healthcare settings worldwide.

ADS offers extensive online resources, publications, FAQs, checklists, and toolkits that help dental professionals deliver the safest dental visit possible for their patients. ADS also provides online and live courses to help advance the level of knowledge and skill of dental health care personnel.