News — CDC

The CDC has come out with guidance about handpieces and sterilization. I have always advocated sterilization of handpieces between patients and for good reason. Basically, the CDC recommends (which most if not all State Dental Boards interpret as law) that you should be heat sterilizing your handpieces and other intraoral instruments that can be removed from air and water lines between each patient use. (see the article below) If you have any questions about this or need help teaching proper sterilization techniques to your staff, please give us a call. 817-755-0035. The only shame is asking for help is in asking...

Is your dental office using KN-95 respirators? If yes, read on! As if keeping up with the barrage of changes in guidelines hasn’t been challenging enough throughout the COVID-19 pandemic the FDA is here to ‘help’ one more time (and you have no time to prepare unless you heeded my warning from this past Spring when I predicted this situation). The FDA announced the revocation of the agency’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for KN-95 respirators effective July 6th, 2021. In other words you can no longer get by using KN-95s, which may not be a problem for those of you...

No More State Board Rule for COVID-19 Precautions: Now What Do We Do?

On 06/18/2021 the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners (TSBDE) met and agreed to allow the COVID-19 Rule (officially 22 TAC 108.7(16)) expire with no replacement and the suggestion that dentists in Texas look to the CDC for continued guidance. This rule required patient screening, twice daily employee screening, use of N95/KN95 (or substantial equivalent), and so on.

A couple of weeks prior, however, OSHA announced the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to address COVID-19 safety in healthcare settings. The ETS being a Standard has the effect of law and is enforceable as such. We will explore the CDC Guidelines in a moment, but first, let us discuss the ETS.