Conclusion
Mugi S -
Hello everyone! First off, I want to say I have really enjoyed listening to everyone’s feedback and I am so thankful for your continued interest and curiosity. I have really learned a lot over these past ten weeks and I can’t wait to take all these findings and experiences with me to dental school in a couple years!
I began this project with the question: what are the consequences of ineffective sterilization in dentistry? I discovered the answer is not as simple as a bullet point list. There are short term effects such as the transmission of bloodborne pathogens like HBV, HCV, HIV, as well as bacteria, fungi, and possibly mycobacteria. Specific diseases include tuberculosis, leprosy, tetanus, and parasitic infection. However, the long term consequences are still being heavily targeted in research for real-life contaminated patients. They can include medical symptoms for patients and additional repercussions for dentists. Another finding from my project is the importance of cross contamination for materials that patients can be allergic to.
This project can be used in the future to aid further research into the microbial aspect, which could lead to new innovations that will ensure a smoother, effective, and maintainable process to sterilizing instruments multiple times in a day. There is recent research already underway aimed to transform the process of dental sterilization to be faster, safer, and smarter while increasing efficiency. They incorporate a newer integration of artificial intelligence and automation into sterilization equipment in order to optimize sterilization cycles, quickly adapt to different dental tools, and even provide real-time monitoring and feedback. From the information I have gathered, I hope this future comes with a huge emphasis on patient and dental staff safety to make certain that all bacteria and microorganisms are eliminated after every single use!
I learned much more than sterilization during this project, I got a better understanding of countless routine dental procedures such as fillings, crowns, and root canals. I was fortunate enough to also observe some complex and rare patient cases that were so much fun! Under my on site advisor I was also able to learn so much more about dentistry, for example patient care, situational responses, and running a dental practice.
Thank you to Dr. Nigam, Mr. Worthington, and Señor Garcia for their support during this project!