Handling Post–Dental Extraction Patients: How to Avoid Trans-Infection of Blood-Borne Diseases

A survey on the disposal of blood-contaminated tampon after dental extraction

“…The questionnaire is being revised for this survey based on learning from Chatzoudi and Franklin’ survey. The questionnaire for dentists includes 6 closed questions (Chatzoudi 2009 ): whether they provide verbal postoperative-advices to patients; whether they provide written postoperative-advices to patients; whether they give patients extra tampon in case the initial tampon does not adequately control the bleeding; whether their postoperative-advices give an explanation to their patients about how to dispose of the blood-contaminated tampon; whether they give special advices on disposal of tampon to the patients with blood-transmitted diseases, such as hepatitis, AIDS, and syphilis; whether they provide self-sealing plastic bag to patients. The questionnaire for patients includes 5 closed questions (Franklin and Laskin 2014 ): the most likely ways in which they finally throw the blood-contaminated tampon; whether they wash theirs hands immediately and thoroughly after they touch the tampon by hand; whether they know the blood-contaminated tampon may cause cross infection; whether the patients know how to dispose of the blood-contaminated tampon correctly; whether they dispose of the blood-contaminated tampon carefully if they have blood-transmitted disease.…”

“…A study of Franklin and Laskin ( 2014 ) pointed out, although all dentists provided patients with both written and verbal postoperative-advices, but these postoperative-advices seldom indicated how to dispose of blood-contaminated tampon, and patients with blood-transmitted diseases rarely got special advices. A study of Chatzoudi ( 2009 ) found that most patients threw the gauze away in an improper way and half of patients touched the gauze with their bare hands before its final disposal. Both studies indicate that there is high risk for cross infection caused by blood-contaminated tampon after dental extraction, and most dentists and patients still have not paid enough attention to it.…”

Analysis of the attitudes and needs/demands of dental practitioners in the field of patient safety and risk management

“…In a population‐based study, tooth extraction was shown to be associated with a low but significant risk of postoperative sepsis, especially in the elderly and patients with underlying diseases. Further, owing to the danger of trans‐infection of blood‐borne diseases, dental practitioners are recommended to assess the risks of cross‐infection after dental extraction. In an analysis concerning the radiographical errors of undergraduate students, it was observed that 1,089 radiographs (64.06%) were acceptable, and 611 radiographs (35.94%) were unacceptable.…”

“…Such reporting and analysis of errors can significantly help in the identification of the main contributing factors. According to all these studies, understanding the factors that lead to errors is essential for the consideration of changes that will prevent errors. It also needs to be considered that single events or errors most often result from the convergence of multiple contributing factors and preventing errors apparently requires a systems approach in order to modify the conditions that contribute to these errors.…”