How are your instruments sterilized at Murfreesboro Family Dentistry? How does dentist tool sterilization work?

Dr. Jackson: Well, we go through a process to make sure that we clean all of our instruments thoroughly. We start off with an ultrasonic cleaner which helps to physically remove or debride all of the instruments from any type of particulate matter. Then, we rinse them with plain water and put them in a dryer to dry them. Next, we put them in our steam autoclave. This kills any type of bacteria, viruses, spores, fungi, or anything that could be on them. Then, we store them in a sterile environment before making sure that we get them ready for each individual patient.

Your office is interesting in that a lot of the sterilization equipment is touchless, correct?

Correct. The biggest benefit to that is that we can make sure that we are not cross-contaminating any type of instruments. This can happen by possibly touching doors or drawers with dirty gloves to put instruments in them and then taking them out after the container that’s holding them has been contaminated.