Guidelines and Recommendations

Recommended Infection Control Practices for Dentistry

The new Guidelines for Infection Control in Dental Health-Care Settings, 2003, were developed for dental health care personnel. The 2003 Guidelines update and revise previous guidelines and consolidate recommendations from other relevant CDC guidelines (e.g., Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings, Guidelines for Infection Control in Healthcare Personnel, Guidelines for Preventing the Transmission of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis in Health Care Facilities) as well as those of other major infection control organizations. Developed by CDC staff in collaboration with a working group of infection control experts, the document contains a review of the scientific evidence regarding dental infection control issues as well as consensus, evidence-based recommendations.

• Guidelines for Infection Control in Dental Health-Care Settings, 2003. MMWR, December 19, 2003:52(RR-17).
  • Appendix A: Regulatory Framework for Disinfectants and Sterilants;
    includes Figure: Decreasing Order of Resistance of Micro-organisms to Germicidal Chemicals
  • Appendix B: Immunizations Strongly Recommended for Health-Care Personnel (HCP)
  • Appendix C: Methods for Sterilizing and Disinfecting Patient-Care Items and Environmental Surfaces
  • Also available as a PDF file (PDF–1.2Mb).
     
• Slide Presentation
  This slide presentation is provided by CDC to train clinical dental staff such as infection control coordinators, educators, and consultants on currently recommended infection control practices. It can be downloaded as a PowerPoint presentation or viewed on the Web site.

Additional Resources:

The Organization for Safety & Asepsis Procedures (OSAP) has produced From Policy to Practice: OSAP's Guide to the Guidelines*. This 170-page workbook contains practical information to help health care professionals put the new recommendations into practice. This resource was produced by OSAP through a CDC cooperative agreement.

Safe Injection Practices in Dentistry
Safe injection practices are a set of measures clinicians should follow to perform injections in an optimally safe manner for patients, health care personnel, and others. CDC reminds dental practitioners of the safe injection practices that are critical for patient safety.

Guidelines and Recommendations on other oral health topics.

One or more documents on this Web page is available in Portable Document Format (PDF). You will need Acrobat Reader to view and print these documents.

* Links to non-Federal organizations are provided solely as a service to our users. Links do not constitute an endorsement of any organization by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. The CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at this link.

Page last reviewed: July 23, 2012
Page last modified: July 23, 2012
Content source: Division of Oral Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion