Sachets and individual wet wipes are typically associated with the cosmetics or hospitality industries, but they’re understandably well-suited to the healthcare sector, too. Anywhere that cleanliness is of the utmost importance, wet wipe sachets can find a home. The dental industry, of course, fits this brief.
At Guardpack, we’ve been manufacturing wipes and sachets for a quarter of a century! It goes without saying that we’ve got a lot of experience producing specific formulas and sachets across a range of industries. Today, however, we thought we would put a focus on how our products benefit the dental industry.
Why the dental industry should utilise sachets and individual wet wipes?
Having full control over the prevention of infection is essential to the safe and effective treatment of dental patients. Individually packaged disinfectant wipes are suitable for cleaning and disinfecting after each patient. This makes them an integral, and extremely practical, part of a surgeries day-to-day.
Quick and easy to use, wipes developed for the dental industry offer maximum efficiency for the routine disinfection of surfaces in surgery rooms. This is key in providing a safe work environment for staff, as well as patients. Measures that will reduce the likelihood of healthcare-associated infections being transmitted must be adopted as part of a practice’s policy.
Health Technical Memorandum 05-01
It is stated in the HTM (Health Technical Memorandum) 01-05 6.61 that: “The patient treatment area should be cleaned after every session using disposable cloths or clean microfibre materials – even if the area appears uncontaminated”.
Single-use, disposable sachets and individual wet wipes infused with an appropriate disinfectant are typically the preferred choice, over reusable cleaning cloths. This is due to the fact that extensive microbial contamination has been found on the latter, which can potentially contaminate equipment, hands or other surfaces.
Further HTM 05-01 recommendations state:
6.46 – “All work surfaces where clinical care or decontamination is carried out should be impervious and easily cleanable”.
6.54 – “The dental practice should have a local protocol clearly outlining surface and room-cleaning schedules”.
Individual wipes pre-saturated with a suitable formula are perfectly suited to these recommendations. The wipes Guardpack manufactures, for example, are disposable, biodegradable, convenient to use, and require less storage space that other methods of cleaning and disinfecting. They can also be made to order, meaning each wipe will contain the optimum amount of disinfectant to ensure efficiency.
What’s the difference between cleaning and disinfecting?
Making sure everything is clean and disinfected is the responsibility of the practice, but they must be aware that these two words do not hold the same meaning. The purpose of cleaning is to remove organisms, rather than kill them. It should always precede disinfection in order to make the following process more efficient.
The disinfection phase uses an anti-bacterial/anti-virucidal/anti-fungal chemical to eradicate harmful microorganisms left behind following the initial cleaning.
The prevention of infection is, of course, integral to any good dental practice. Regular, high-quality disinfection is, therefore, essential. There are many types of disinfectants to choose from. However, when convenience and efficiency are a priority, sachets and individual wet wipes are an ideal choice.
Contact us
To find out more about Guardpack’s sachets and individual wet wipes, get in touch with our team today. Alternatively, you can call us on 01245 505 807 or email us at trade@guardpack.co.uk.