#22 in a series

Practicing proper infection control procedures is the responsibility of every student, staff and faculty member with clinical responsibilities. With the fast-paced nature of the clinical environment, it is sometimes easy to overlook basic infection control policies. To help raise awareness about these issues, we've created this series of infection control reminders and pointers. For questions about infection control policies or more information, contact the School of Dentistry's Director of Health and Safety, Dr. Molly Newlon at: newlonm@dentistry.ucsf.edu.

When managing clinical contact surfaces using surface barrier protection, the following must take place:

• At the beginning of each day, clean all contact surfaces with an intermediate level disinfectant before placing surface barriers.
  
  
• When removing contaminated surface barriers, gloves must be worn. Care must be taken to not contaminate the surfaces beneath the barriers.
  
  
• If the surface has NOT been contaminated when removing the surface barrier, then it is not necessary to clean/disinfect the surface, however always inspect the surfaces to insure that no contamination has taken place.
  
  
• Discard the contaminated barriers and contaminated gloves, wash hands and place new barriers for the next patient.
  
  
• At the end of the day, remove all barriers and clean and disinfect all clinical contact surfaces in the operatory.
  

Best regards,

Charles N. Bertolami, DDS, DMedSc

Dean