The SMART way to achieve effective decontamination in daily practice – online CPD

The SMART way to achieve effective decontamination and sterilisation of dental handpieces in daily practice

Decontamination Consultant, Mark Beckwith, discusses the SMART way to clean, lubricate and sterilise precision-engineered dental handpieces to maintain peak performance and maximise their lifespan.

Aims and objectives:
The aim of this article is to improve the dental team’s knowledge concerning effective handpiece cleaning, lubrication, and sterilisation.

Learning objectives:
On completing this Enhanced CPD article, the reader will understand:

• The most effective ways to clean and lubricate a handpiece before sterilisation
• The handpiece sterilisation process and autoclave cycle types to break the chain of potential cross-contamination between patients
• The NSK SMART3 handpiece decontamination protocol

Learning content:
The reader will learn the necessary steps in how best to clean, decontaminate and lubricate hollow instruments/hand-pieces, and by using the right choice of autoclave, then achieve effective sterilisation.

Learning Outcome: C
Worth 0.5 hours of verifiable eCPD

Gaining verifiable CPD is an essential component of a dental professional’s life-long learning and as a company we are committed to the provision of relevant education. As part of this commitment we publish regular online CPD articles. Each article is followed by a series of multiple-choice questions that should be answered online, after which respondents will receive immediate feedback as to whether answers are correct or given the opportunity to re-answer if necessary.

On completion you will be able to download a PDF certificate, which can be used as evidence of CPD hours.