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Dental Hygienist Jobs
Clean/ sterilize rooms and instruments between each patient
Hygienists clean rooms between each patient by wiping down anything that was touched with a spray that kills bacteria. This includes wiping down the light, chair, counter tops, drawer fronts, and hoses from the hand piece. The cleaning and examination instruments are placed in an ultrasonic cleaner where they are cleaned for approximately 10 minutes. They are then rinsed and placed in an autoclave for sterilization. The autoclave machine heats up to about 270 degrees for 10-15 minutes and is under steam pressure. Finally, the instruments dry and can be put away on pre-set trays for procedures like cleanings, fillings, crowns, and root canals.Learn more about dental hygienist salary.
Sharpening the dental instruments
Dental hygienists are responsible for making sure their instruments remain sharp. Most offices send their instruments to an
outside company periodically to have them sharpened. In other offices the hygienist uses a sharpening stone. Without sharp instruments, the teeth cannot be cleaned nearly as well. Ensure equipment is running properly and flushing the lines
At the beginning of each day hygienists are responsible for flushing the lines which involves running the water in them for approximately a minute. At the end of the day they use a special solution and suction to extract it. This process prevents the lines from becoming clogged and biofilm from developing inside the lines which could cause people to become ill.Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) paperwork
Due to OSHA rules and regulations, hygienists follow a set of procedures to ensure their office is compliant. For instance, hygienists in most offices spore test the autoclave weekly. The autoclave is the device that sterilizes the instruments. They then log when and how often this piece of equipment is tested. In order to test the autoclave, there are two strips placed inside the machine and the machine is then run with instruments inside. The strips are sent away to a company to test for spores under a microscope. This process ensures that the machines are indeed sterilizing the instruments properly.Learn more about dental hygienist certification programs.
In addition to testing the autoclave, the cold sterile must also be tested once a month. Plastic cleaning tools must be sterilized inside the cold sterile because they would melt in the autoclave. To test this there is a test strip used once a week to ensure the 28 day solution is still at a high enough concentration to sterilize the tools it is used for. Every time this is checked, it is logged as well.
This type of checking and logging is vitally important to the dental office because if OSHA representatives ever came to the office they would be able to determine if the office is taking the appropriate measures to ensure things are sterilized. Sometimes this job is done by a dental assistant but oftentimes a hygienist completes these tasks.
Learn more about dental hygienist certification programs.
