Medical Waste Disposal for Dental Clinics
Depending on the services that they offer, dental clinics may perform surgeries, root canals, fillings, and routine dental services on any given day. These services involve sharp materials and putting your staff in contact with hazardous medical waste materials like blood, blood products, and bodily fluids. These substances can spread disease, which is why the handling and disposing of them are heavily regulated. Institutions like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and each state health administration are responsible for creating and enforcing these regulations.
At DMI Solutions, we understand the difficulty of keeping up with these regulations while providing a high level of service to your clients. That’s why we offer you high-quality medical disposal solutions, allowing you to focus on the most important thing; your patients.
Disposal Solutions For Dental Clinics
The needs of each dental clinic are unique to the services that they provide. For instance, an endodontist’s office won’t offer the same services as general dentistry. Because of this, the medical waste disposal needs of each office will differ as well.
At DMI Solutions, we are highly skilled in helping you identify the needs of your business and implementing a plan to allow you to see the best results. Experience has shown us that most dental clinics benefit from the following medical disposal services.
Biohazardous Medical Waste Disposal
Biohazardous medical waste, or “red bag” waste, is infectious or potentially infectious material including, but not limited to, blood, blood products, and bodily fluid. Working closely with these substances places you in great danger of contracting a disease or becoming infected. To protect your patients and staff, you must ensure that these materials are adequately stored and disposed of. These materials can include things soaked in blood like gauze or extracted teeth in dental offices.
Biohazardous medical waste should be placed in a medical waste bag for final disposal.
Sharps Waste Disposal
Dental offices may use sharp materials like scalpels blades, orthodontic wires, anesthetic carpules, and needles in their daily functions to care for patients. These materials pose a unique threat to staff because of the possibility of accidental needle sticks.
When accidentally punctured by used sharps, you can become infected and contract serious diseases like Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). You can prevent needlestick injuries by storing them in FDA-approved sharps containers.
These containers are puncture-proof and leak-proof, drastically reducing the likelihood of exposure.
Pharmaceutical Waste Disposal
Dental clinics can carry various medications like anti-inflammatory medications, anesthetics, antiseptics, and pain medications. These pharmaceuticals can help you to take care of your patients properly and reduce discomfort. However, if these medications become contaminated or expire, they need to be disposed of immediately. Flushing them down the drain or tossing them out in the trash can negatively affect the environmental and local communities. Instead, pharmaceutical waste should be disposed of through mail-back programs or by incineration (combustion of substances). A medical disposal company can help you by collecting, transporting, and treating these items.
Document Shredding
Dental clinics, like other medical facilities, deal with an abundance of confidential medical information. The HIPAA Privacy Rule requires that you protect these records by safely storing and destroying them when necessary. Paper document privacy breaches are still possible among medical facilities, particularly if you don’t employ safety practices like professional document shredding.
Once your confidential documents reach the end of their retention period, we can help you destroy them safely and effectively.
Compliance Training Requirements for Dental Clinics
The most effective way to ensure the safety and security of your patients is to ensure that your staff is properly trained on the rules and regulations governing medical waste. Although compliance training requirements may vary depending on your state’s regulations, for the most part, dental clinics benefit from the following annual compliance training:
- 1. Biohazardous Waste
- 2. OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens
- 3. OSHA Hazard Communication Awareness
- 4. HIPAA Privacy and Security
- 5. Hazardous Materials
At DMI Solutions, we offer in-depth compliance training to keep your staff in compliance with the most up-to-date industry standards.
Why Choose DMI Solutions for Dental Clinic Medical Waste Disposal
At DMI Solutions, we offer all-inclusive solutions to your medical disposal needs. We have years of experience in the field, and we understand the unique requirements of managing medical waste in a dental office.
When you choose us for your medical disposal needs, you’ll benefit from timely, efficient services at a fair price. If you’re looking for medical waste disposal for your dental clinic, contact us today for more information.
