With the vast number of infections affecting humans either clinically or sub clinically it is impossible to ascertain whether the patient who attends for dental treatment is a carrier of infectious agents. Therefore, all patients should be treated as if they were reservoirs of pathogens. The infection control procedures involved in such treatment are termed standard precautions (previously termed universal precautions) and all clinical procedures performed on any patient should be conducted using standard infection control.

The first set of recommendations on infection control in dentistry, issued in the late 1980s, focused primarily on the transmission of blood-borne pathogen transmission in dental care and other clinical settings and was termed universal precautions. These recommendations emphasized the need to treat blood and other bloody fluids contaminated with blood from all patients as potentially infectious. However the realization that moist body substances are equally important in disease transmission led to the development of standard precautions in the mid-1990s. Thus standard precautions are similar to universal precautions as they are designed to reduce the risk of infection transmission from both recognized and unrecognized sources of infection to patients and clinicians. Standard precautions apply to contact with blood, all body fluids, secretions and excretions except sweat, regardless of whether they contain blood, non-intact skin and mucous membranes.

For the overwhelming majority of infectious diseases, including those possibly encountered routinely in dental settings, the application of standard precautions will arrest disease transmission. However, in special situations where a known infection with a high transmission potential is suspected or encountered, additional precautions or transmission-based precautions have to be implemented. These include situations dealing with patients either having or suspected to be infected with virulent pathogens that are transmitted through air or droplets (e.g. tuberculosis, influenza, chickenpox, mumps, influenza) or indirect or direct contact with contaminated sources (e.g. methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

This presentation will critically demonstrate how to implement standard infection control procedures through the routine application of precautions such as multiple aseptic procedures, one of which is pre procedure rinsing (PPR). Other aseptic measures include personal protective equipment (PPE) such as latex gloves, masks, protective eyewear and clinic attire. Finally, in this context, instrument decontamination devices, time-efficient heat sterilization modalities, chemical disinfectants, waste management procedures and single-use disposable items are important and their use and abuse in the clinic will be critically evaluated as per the Health Technical Memorandum 01-05 issued by the Department of Health of UK in 2008.