Quality outcomes for dental radiography and personal information management
The collection of personal, medical and dental details from the patient is important for lawful functionality and activities in dentistry. The personal information of Mr. Walker will help practitioners to rely on these records and make contact with patient whenever required for service. Further, medical and dental details of Mr. Walker will help in better understanding of his health condition that will further help the operator to provide an individualised, customised and personalised treatment process.
As per Australian Dental Regulations, taking medical and dental details is important for a patient’s own safety. The dental practice or activity on patient’s body can have an impact on certain vital medical conditions like allergies, diabetes, epilepsy or heart disease, therefore, medical details are collected to ensure safe dental process as per patient requirements (Convissar, 2015).
As a dental practitioner, it is the first and foremost step to collect patient information with due respect avoiding embarrassment. In the present case, before getting Mr. Walker’s personal and medical information he will be explained about his rights and reason to collect personal information. Further, Mr. Walker will be explained about privacy laws, protocols and policies followed for the collection, use, storage and disclosure of patient information as per Australian standards (Billings & Halstead, 2015).
Mr. Walker will be informed about his Freedom of Information Act (FOI) that provides him with a right to access his information and dental records. Lastly, the information will be in form of paperwork that avoids face-to-face confrontation (Convissar, 2015). This will surely help to encourage Mr. Walker for providing his complete information without embarrassment.
All the patient information collected from Mr. Walker would be stored and protected by following the guidelines of the Australian Information Commissioner. His personal information will be stored separately protected from any unauthorised use or access. The information file cabinet will be locked stored in the room not accessible for general staff or public. Further, information in the computer will be password protected with screen visibility for staff members only. Further, this electronic data system will have a superior software security system (Nelson, 2014).
The Guidelines on dental records as per the National Law of Dental Board of Australia are followed to accurately record patient’s information (Billings & Halstead, 2015).
- All the information should be recorded at the time of appointment and as soon as the patient session is complete.
- All the data should be added in chronological order
- The data entries must be concise and accurate
- The information must be in understandable for third parties (the other dental practitioner).
- The information should be in promptly retrievable form.
- There should be the elimination of objective and emotional language in medical data.
- The data corrections must not remove the original information provided by the patient.
- The patient and practitioner should be made aware of data privacy, responsibility and accuracy.
The general use of topical anaesthetic is to numb any surface of the body part that includes all areas of skin, eyeball front, inside nose, anus, throat, ear and genital area. With reference to the case study, a topical anaesthetic is used here to numb the surface area for tooth composite restoration (Nelson, 2014).
The following rules should be followed to ensure a safe transfer of anaesthetic syringe to the operator being a dental practitioner in the dental practice
- Maintain hand hygiene and wear personal protective equipment
- The anaesthetic needle should never be passed by hand between staff member and practitioner, rather a puncture-resistant tray or bowl should be used to transfer the syringe in anaesthetic process.
- The safe and smooth transfer to syringe should be in transfer zone that is above the patient’s neck at chin level to ensure minimum movement by the patient (Nelson, 2014).
Being a dental assistant one can ensure that the operator has a clear field of vision by retract or suction of an area while performing the patient treatment. The dental assistant should sit higher than operator allowing clear visibility along with adjusting the light as per requirement of visibility zone for the operator. Further, assisting in the handling of instruments to operator also ensure proper attention to the patient (Van Noort, 2014)..
To ensure the patient well-being and support the dental surgery process a dental assistant need to follow below-described points.
- Dental nurse should ensure patient wear safety instruments like spectacles and waterproof bib. Further, proper attention to be made on a chair angulation and head position of the patient to ensure safe movement and comfort of the patient.
- The dental nurse must anticipate operator actions to provide handling support
- The dental nurse must understand and learn the clinical procedures thoroughly to develop a working sequence with the operator
- Use spoken and un-spoken signals while handling surgery with operator helping to improve efficiency and workflow (Nelson, 2014).
Disassembling and dispose of needle and cartridge after anaesthetic involves following steps: –
- The needle and cartridge are not touched by hand but a scissor is used to remove the needle from the cartridge in the syringe
- Further, the needle is straight away disposed in the waste disposable bag using the same scissor or disposing instrument
- The cartridge is also disassembled and disposed of in the same waste bag using the scissor or disposal instrument (Van Noort, 2014).
As a dental assistant apart from instrument sharpening it is required to inspect the cleaning, sterilization, positioning, repairing and equality check of dental equipment’s and instruments. The cleaning is done to remove surgical dirt followed by sterilization. Further, repairing and positioning of dental instruments is inspected to ensure proper functioning of these instruments in the future (Nelson, 2014).
Cassettes and instrument tray sterilization involves proper steam cleaning followed by drying cycle to ensure proper drying occurred from them. Further, they are packed with wraps that work as effective bio-barrier for storage. The package is considered non-sterile when it’s wrapping condition is not proper or simply it is an unwrapped condition (Nelson, 2014).
The lead apron and thyroid collar are provided for personal protection of the patient at the time of radiation exposure. The lead apron protects the sensitive body parts from x-rays and gamma-rays. Further, thyroid collar works to radiation exposure of the thyroid area of the neck to avoid interference with the image (Convissar, 2015).
The dental assistant and operator need to leave the room because radiographic rays have barrier windows and walls to limit their exposure within the room. Their presence inside the room can lead to interference in image formation, therefore, assistant and operator need to leave the room (Convissar, 2015).
The safe handling, practice, process and disposal of manual processing cycle and automatic digital imaging almost involve similar steps for preparation: –
- Maintain a clean and dry working space for radiography followed by ensuring the absence of white light in the working area.
- As per manufacturer specifications, the dental assistant needs to maintain and clean the equipments.
- The materials required to be arranged in manual processing are thermostatic gauge, water control, timer, disinfectant solution, manual tank, x-ray racks, silver recovery unit, dryer, red/orange safelight, stirring rod solution storage.
- However, the digital radiography process has a self-contained unit that persists a day-light loading box that allows film extraction in the normal room.
- Washing and drying the hands carefully followed by wearing glasses, gloves and a mask.
- Ready the cup for disposal materials
- Take out the film from the protective sleeve
- Avoiding any surface contact just remove the film from film package
- Place the film packet waste materials in the cup to ensure workplace cleanliness and safety
- After removal of x-ray film, remove gloves and dispose of them in the cup
- In case of manual processing, dental assistance needs to re-glove for further processing
- Further, follow the manual fixing and drying carefully with these gloves
- In the case of digital processing, the unwrapped films are placed in the machine (Van Noort, 2014).
Mounting and filing of digital images after processing involves: –
- Once processing and drying of films they are mounted into frames. Further, they are stored as per workplace procedures with proper attachment to its patient’s record.
- The raised dot is placed in the film for proper mounting or viewing located in the convex side towards x-ray cone.
- Correctly label the mounting frame for the specification of different films.
- In case immediate processing is not needed then the patient film is stored in the container, envelope or cup labeled with patient details (Convissar, 2015).
References
Convissar, R. A. (2015). Principles and Practice of Laser Dentistry-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Billings, D. M., & Halstead, J. A. (2015). Teaching in nursing-e-book: A guide for faculty. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Nelson, S. J. (2014). Wheeler’s Dental Anatomy, Physiology and Occlusion-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Van Noort, R. (2014). Introduction to Dental Materials-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
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