Common Sense Cleaning, Disinfecting, and Sanitizing: Are You Doing Things Right in Your Practice?

You're listening to The Dr. Phil Klein Dental Podcast from Viva Learning.com. Welcome to the show. I'm Dr. Phil Klein. While many use the words cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing interchangeably, they're not quite the same. For instance, cleaning removes visible dirt, soil, and debris, but does not disinfect. Disinfecting eliminates bacteria, fungi, and certain viruses, but disinfecting does not clean or remove dirt. And finally, sanitizing reduces the number of germs on surfaces or objects to a safe level, but does not fully eliminate them. Today we'll be discussing these areas and how we can use common sense knowledge to make wise decisions to protect ourselves, our team, and our practice. Our guest, Shannon Pace Brinker, is an international speaker, author, and dental assistant for over 32 years. Shannon owns the Academy of Chairside Assisting online training platform for dental assistant education. She has taught over 60,000 dental assistants across the U.S. and Canada, and is arguably one of the most well-known dental assistants in the country. Before we get started, I would like to thank our sponsor of today's podcast, Gojo Industries. Gojo is world recognized for its popular hand sanitizer, Purell. So thank you, Gojo, for all the great products you bring to the dental profession, and thank you for sponsoring today's podcast. Shannon, it's a pleasure to have you on Dental Talk. Phil, thank you so much for having me today. Yeah, so you've been real busy. We've been seeing you in a lot of podcasts. You've been doing training online. You've been doing Viva webinars. It's a virtual era for you and many of the other KOLs. Of course, the pandemic has driven that to some extent. You are doing a lot of work online and we really appreciate everything you've been doing to help educate our audience across the board. Let's begin with a simple question. What are some of the gray areas of equipment disinfecting and sanitizing that we normally don't hear too much about? Yeah, I think that the first thing we have to understand is, you know, A lot of team members are in these practices. They have no training, and especially right now. I mean, so many practices are getting dental assistants from Starbucks, you know, which is a great place. And they don't have the time to really train them properly. And the first thing that I would say is exactly what we're doing in our own practice is you have to understand the difference between cleaning. disinfecting, and sanitizing. And if we can make those three very easy for the team to understand, cleaning is basically where we're moving the dirt, the debris, right? It's not disinfecting. So cleaning is just basically sweeping, vacuuming, using the rumba. The disinfecting is where we're going to eliminate any bacteria, anything, certain viruses. what we call disinfecting. And then sanitizing is where we're going to reduce the germs. And this is something that, again, we say this is so elementary, the cleaning, disinfecting, the sanitizing. But I will tell you, so many people still don't understand that. And so we really have to think about doing the cleaning first, then disinfecting, and then sanitizing the areas to really remove all the germs on any surface or anything that we're touching that we really would look at and judge. And I think those are the first three things that we have to just point blank lay out and as a matter of fact we've actually made a little pdf of this so the team gets it visually you know disinfecting, or cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing. They have to know those three things before we can talk about anything else in the practice when it comes to infection control. And this applies to hand hygiene and cleaning surfaces, these definitions, obviously. It really does. It really does. And I think that this is where, again, we have to make things so simple and easy for team members to understand. But also looking back at some of the things sometimes, we say we're creatures of habit in dentistry, but it's very... for us to forget the things we need to do. And we have to remind ourselves, even in the huddle, which is why I always say you want to huddle, because this is something every day that we try to remind ourselves to, you know, take precautions, take care of ourself, take care of our team and take care of our patients. You know, and this is kind of how we do things and reminding ourselves in the huddle now more than ever, hey, these are the things we need to know and what we need to do to be safe. So let's touch on hand hygiene. What advancements are you seeing in the profession right now? And what are you currently implementing in your office in this area? And also talk about the patients. How do we manage their hand hygiene sanitization? Yes, Phil, I will tell you that the first thing is we all know that right now, again, here we go back to be a lot more cautious right now with all these different variants. And I will say that one of the things, you know, that I always love about working with you is you let me be very candid and I'm going to be because, you know. We can't watch every patient. And I have two practices that I work in that one has, oh my gosh, we probably see, you know, a hundred patients a day and we can't watch them all. We're all busy and we don't know whether or not, you know, they use hand sanitizer. We have it in the waiting rooms. But one of the things that we just implemented that I'm so excited to share, which was so, you talk about common sense, this just made so much sense. When a patient comes into our office, we've got our Purell hand sanitizer and it's what we do. at every location of our practice but we actually took it one step further and we bought the individual packets so when a patient sits in the chair it's one of the first things that we do is they see us utilizing it before we put our gloves on and then we hand the packet to the patient and i had a good friend of mine she said oh my gosh this makes so much sense and i said At the end of the day, we're so worried sometimes that we're going to make our patients angry or, you know, get them upset with us. But what I want you to think about, and this is what I told her, is you think about the perception of the patient that we're taking the precautions. You know, you may have used it out front. But I'm going to have you use it and make sure of it. And I will say that there's a lot of patients that have told us, thank you for this. And we had no idea what patient's perception was going to be and what that feedback was. But, you know, we already had had, you know, the hand sanitizers throughout the practice. But by adding this. It just made us at the end of the day, we talked about it as a team. We said, hey, how do we feel? How do you guys feel about what happened today? Because we did have to give the verbiage to our team. You know, we had to say, hey, these are the things. But if you make it very nonchalant and just hand it to them and they see you doing it. and then the patient is doing it, I think that they feel good about it as well. And it just shows that we're really doing everything we can to protect each other. So at the end of the day, that would probably be the number one perk I would say that I would take away if I were practice listening is, you know, don't just have, you know, your bottles of hand sanitizer out there, you know, utilize the packets. And again, patients really do appreciate it. Matter of fact, I've had some say, hey, can I take one more? You know and and it's really made an impact I think on our patients. Yeah, and most of the patients must be familiar with Purell Anyway, right when they come in the office and they and you give them these packets Oh, my gosh. I mean, they must be living in a rock if they don't. Right. What I will say that they have noticed is we have the new bottles that actually say the two times sanitizing strength. And I will say that that has been noticed. They're like, wait a minute. My bottle doesn't say that. Where did you get this from? So believe it or not, you sometimes you think people don't read and patients really don't pay attention, but they do. And and I will say that I think having that two times on the label really. again, gets the attention. They already knew that we were taking so many precautions, but this is just, again, I think made a big influence and impact on the way that we are presented to the patient. So as a dental care provider, you use the hand sanitizer before you put your gloves on? I do. And Phil, I have to tell you that I am not the guru of infection control by no means. You know, I have learned so much myself because I kind of had to, you know, being in this position where I always talk clinical. Everything was clinical, but it's a it's a new age and it's a new new time, you know, where we've got equipment and so many devices now that, you know, from our glasses or safety glasses to digital scanners to equipment that. Really, we have to be so careful. And I have to tell you something. Nobody knows this except for the doctor that I worked for a couple of years ago. I use, you know, a chemical on one of our cameras, our internal cameras. And I actually ruined the lens, not knowing that, you know, this chemical, you know, it was in a it was in a wipe and didn't know how harsh it was going to be. And I can tell you that from, you know, all these areas that we talk about of disinfecting and sanitizing, you know, you got to be really careful. And first thing is our hands. I always fuss at my kids and my husband. Hey, wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands. Not knowing enough about really thinking, OK, when should we wash our hands? Because we really have to be very black and white. And that if somebody lays it out for me, I will get it. I will memorize it. I will understand it and I will follow through. And so I feel like, you know, one of the things that I want to just touch on is, you know, just that when we think about when should we wash our hands and those. of things we really want to think about you know eating OK, and so any time that we want to use soap and water, there's really two things we want to think about, you know, after we use the bathroom. And I'll tell you, there have been times that if I go into a place and it's not a nice bathroom, I'll actually wash my hands before I go into the stall. And and any time our hands are soiled or when we're thinking about eating. But all the other times, everything else, we feel safe now knowing that we can utilize the hand sanitizer. The one thing that we know about soap is that it dries. out the hands. And when you are utilizing too, you know, you're washing your hands too many times, you're basically getting rid of the oil that's in our skin and again, causing it to dry out, which when your skin dries out, you're even more susceptible to the germs. And that was something I didn't know a lot about. And so now I actually am the exact opposite. You know, I am using Pharrell for everything. It's in my car. I use it on my steering wheel when I get in my car, you know. I'm just constantly thinking about this, but I will tell you that I was always a soap and water kind of person. And and now I just I didn't know what I didn't know. And so it just makes sense. So every time that people will say, well, when do you use it in the practice? OK, let's really break it down. Every time I take my gloves off and when or when I put my gloves on, if I'm leaving the room. I place some hand sanitizer on my hands. When I get ready to put my gloves on, I use the hand sanitizer. You just can feel really good knowing that this is very safe. It has that brand and that your hands are going to be protected. It's where we start using a lot of soap that can break down the oil in our skin where we really need to be aware of. And again, I know a lot of team members just don't know that. And so now we're going to be really susceptible to germs and some of these viruses that we're talking about. So utilize the hand sanitizer. 100%. Yeah, absolutely. You want to protect the barrier of our skin. And when that starts to break down with small cracks, obviously, you're going to have access to get into your system. And that's that your point is very, very important. So with turnover pretty high right now, how do you train and keep all team members on the same page when it comes to breaking down and setting up for the next patient, especially if they have little or no dental background? I will say I'm a big guides person. I love visuals. I learned this a long time ago and really, you know, just always thought that, you know, we have to, we're readers in dentistry when actually we're the worst. You know, we don't read. We look at photos. You know, we like to touch the magazines, but do we really read the words? Do we really read directions? If we don't have photographs and guides to show us what we should do, a lot of times we're not going to read these little words. And what we started doing was just putting together these guides and just making them so elementary for all of our team to follow. But again, we forget a lot of things. We're so busy with the day out, day in, day out of seeing patients, that reminder of what we need to do. And in our practice, we have these visuals for all team members, not just. new team members where we like to have, you know, just, you know, visuals. We have them in our storage room. We've got them in our supply room. We've got them in where we team will go and have lunch. We've got these everywhere, but everybody really and truly needs a reminder. And so once a month we started. doing this almost like a mini micro training where we do a 10 minutes in the huddle once a month and it's all geared towards infection control and everybody gets a little visual. And what we found was having the visuals and just reminders really is something that, again, sometimes we get irritated about it because we're like, man, we know this already, but we do forget. And I think that that's something that just having the visuals and that is something that I want to provide to anyone today is we've made these visuals for you. for proper hand sanitation and utilizing the Purell. We actually made them. So it's going to be our gift to anyone that's watching the podcast is to have those. And I know that Purell has their own too, but we're really into having nice photos and just making sure that it's very simple and reachable at any given time for any new team member or existing. Also, you have the Academy of Chairside assisting online. When you bring people into your practice that have little or no dental experience, is that program adequate for them to get started with infection control and learn some of the things you're talking about today? Absolutely. You know, there's there's so many courses out there and and so many amazing speakers. And I mean that I've learned, you know, I have to give so many people credit. I will say, though, that, you know, our attention span and the time that we're in a practice, we don't have the time for long courses. We got to make them simple and fast and quick, which you already know. And so that is one of the things that we want to make sure of. Again, the dentists don't have time to train the team. And right now, probably the largest turnover is dental assistants and trying to find dental. assistance. And so if you've got a team member that's looking for training, we would love for you to be a part of our academy. Absolutely. And again, those visuals is really what we're known for. The downloads, the checklist, having these areas and making sure that the team is following these checklists. Anything that's there, we want to help the team to be right on board, but most importantly, keeping themselves safe in the practice. Let's talk about the different surfaces. So that's always an issue because you mentioned the intro or camera. I mean, that lens is a surface and you are very modest and open about telling us that you kind of destroyed that lens with some very harsh material. Live and learn, right? Yeah, you live and learn. So, you know, we want our audience to learn from everybody's mistake as well as get some guidance from an expert like you. So what we really want to know is when it comes to cleaning these different surfaces, what kind of general recommendations can you make about surface wipes, surface sprays? If you could just cover that a bit. Yes. Well, I've always been one of those where, you know, you've got to make it very simple again for the team. And I will say the other thing that I do is I am very loyal to manufacturers. You know, if we can cut down on all these different brands, it's very confusing. I think when you go into a practice and you've got. This brand and this brand and this brand and this brand. And the team is so confused. I mean, you see sprays and wipes and you've got buckets and you've got soap and they really and truly don't know what surface to utilize each product for. And I'm that person. I'm going to be very I'm that person. And so what would really. confused me. Now even having my own suite and my own little practice, I would say, or my own little one room suite is, you know, my chair, these chairs are crazy expensive. And I never knew that as a dental assistant, how much money equipment when it comes to chairs and stools really run. And I will say that I love my chair. It's absolutely beautiful. It's a really nice green. And I was scared. I'm really scared to put anything on it. When you think about disinfecting and then sanitizing, you know, we've got, again, we've got scanners, we've got internal cameras, you know, I've got a Canon, I've got a Nikon, I've got a Shofu, which you can wipe that down. But there's a lot of things that we really get worried about. And so one of the first things that I did when I was introduced to Purell's of surface disinfecting wipes, they have spray and wipes, but I'm a wipe kind of girl, I do like having the wipes, is the first thing that I looked for was, what can I utilize this on? What I really was appreciative of, because I am a reader, is the fact that they did break it down. Hard, non-porous areas, and then talking about areas of the medical equipment and looking at all the things that they told us we can use it on because it's already been tested. So I felt really good because I will say that, you know, I had a beautiful pink Cure and Light that Dr. Dan Fisher from Ultradent had signed. They only made 100 of these, and it was really pretty pink. And I was utilizing a different brand of wipes on this. And I got to tell you, that pure light is is multicolored now, you know, because I know that, you know, it's something very special to me. And and so the last thing I want to do is put put something like that on my chair, you know, and then take that beautiful green finish away. And it's confusing, though, because so many people will tell us, hey, you know, utilize a disinfecting disinfected wipe. You know, you can use it for this, this and this. But then they tell us to go get soap and water for the chair. One of the things that I always felt, and again, being very transparent here is. why would I not use the same wipes or spray on my chair, you know, or instead of having, you're telling me now to go get soap and water. And this is not just me. This was several of my team members. You know, we said, hey, where, what are some of the areas that you wish people would just be black and white with you on? And this was one of them. And for me, when I first saw that, I was like, oh my gosh, finally, somebody really gave us something for everything because it was such a pain to think about, okay, well, I can't touch the chair. I'm using barriers. do, but these barriers don't cover everything. And so by having a product that I know I can utilize on my digital scanner, I can utilize on my camera equipment. I don't have to worry about the lens. I can utilize it for the chairs and not have to, I mean, who really, I'm being honest, who really is going to go get a bucket and put soap and water in there and wipe everything down? Let's just be real here. Not a lot of people are doing that. So this really has, I think, eliminated a lot of those gray areas. And most importantly, when you look at it, and this is something, again, that will be a part of our webinar, is laying out the fact of these areas where it says acrylic, chrome, glazed tile, fiberglass, laminate, metal, plastic. They really list everything that these wipes can be used on. And so I appreciate that, I think, more than ever, is just to know that. The other thing is that I feel, again, knowing that my team is going to follow it. Because if I said to my team of 26 assistants, I want you, whenever anything is soiled, to go get some soap and a bucket and do this in between patients. Phil, come on now. You know like I do. That ain't going to happen. When does that really happen? What is the name of this product, the wipes? Is it Purell? Yes, this is Purell and this is their surface disinfecting wipes. Now, they have come out with a lot of different new products, which is very, very exciting. I'll tell you, they also came out with a lot of products for restaurants. And so personally, when I was talking to a couple of my team members, I said they made this for restaurants and they made a different one for us for surfaces. And I said, you know, that speaks volume. You know, it makes total sense for a company like this to expand this line. But I will say that I love the fact that they have done just that. And so this is really just made just for the health care. And I will say that, you know, having the broad spectrum of telling me right up front all the things that it kills. It also tells me, you know, different viruses. How long does it take? You know, because so many people, and let's be honest, will say, oh, it only takes a minute. It takes a lot longer than a minute, let's be honest. And so what they've done is they actually broke down the viruses and how long it really should take. And of course, we're always going to wait just a little bit longer just to be safe. But I will say that I felt very comfortable utilizing it and utilizing all my safety glasses, my loops, because I do wear designs for vision loops. And the last thing I want to do is mess those up. And at the end of the day, I was very impressed. And I mean that. And so, you know, I have to make sure that I would rather tear up my equipment first than to tell somebody they can use it. So I will say that I've, again, been very, very impressed and just really appreciative of what this product brings to the table for us and don't think we really had this before. So it's nice to have one and not have 10 different options in the practice. It's all about reducing inventory as well. I mean, that seems to be a trend with composites and every other material we use in restorative dentistry. But what's very interesting about Gojo... the maker of Purell, is they started their company by developing a hand cleaner for the rubber industry where these original factory workers were using kerosene and toxic volatile chemicals to clean their hands after working in the factory. So they came up with this lotion called Gojo and it was designed to clean safely. And here we are in 2022 and they're designing disinfectant wipes that are safe for your green dental chair. So the culture of the company has continued for decades and decades, and it's a tremendous company. They're actually very environmentally aware, and they build their products and develop their products to meet that environmental necessity of protecting the environment. So it's a very admirable company, and they've stuck to the game plan for many, many years, and we're benefiting now in the dental industry, which is very exciting. You've offered a great amount of insight, as you always do. And Shannon, we're excited about your upcoming Viva Learning webinar, Gaining the Clean Conscience. That's a great title. That's coming up on February 17th, Thursday, at 7 p.m. Eastern Time, 4 p.m. Pacific Time. So those of you who are interested in signing up for that free webinar on Viva Learning, just go to vivalearning.com, type in Pace Brinker, two words. P-A-C-E space Brinker, B-R-I-N-K-E-R. And you'll find Shannon's webinar and you can sign up for that. If anybody wants to get more information on Shannon's amazing dental assisting program, you can just Google Academy of Chairside Assisting. That should find it, right, Shannon? You can pick it that way. Or just simple, Chairside Assisting. You know, just Chairside Assisting, one word, and it'll take you right to it. Okay, great. So I hope some of our audience checks that out. And again, Shannon, thank you so much. Thank you, Gojo, for sponsoring this podcast. And we will see you on the next podcast. Thank you.