Infection Control, Sanitation, and Safety
What the exam tests
This domain tests the difference between cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization, and your ability to apply the right process to skin, hands, implements, linens, and spills. Louisiana expects an esthetician to prevent transmission, not just make a treatment room look tidy.
Core rules
- Cleaning removes visible soil with soap and water; disinfection kills most pathogenic organisms on nonporous surfaces; sterilization destroys all organisms, including spores, and is not an esthetician procedure.
- Use an EPA-registered hospital-grade disinfectant at the label dilution and for the full label contact time. Soil left on an implement can inactivate the disinfectant.
- Porous items such as files, buffers, wooden sticks, and cotton are single-use or discarded. They cannot be reliably disinfected.
- Nonporous metal tools are cleaned, dried, immersed, and stored in a clean covered container.
- Electrical tools are wiped with disinfectant; never immersed.
- Blood or body-fluid spill: wear gloves, absorb with a disposable towel, clean with soap and water, disinfect with an EPA-registered tuberculocidal product or labeled bleach dilution, and seal waste in a bag.
- Keep SDS sheets accessible, label secondary containers, and maintain ventilation.
Worked example
A metal extractor falls on the floor. The correct sequence is: pick it up with a clean disposable towel, scrub it with soap and water, dry it, submerge it in hospital-grade disinfectant for the full contact time, then place it in a clean covered container. Reasoning: the floor soil must be removed first, and only full contact time provides disinfection. A quick spray is not equivalent.
Traps that cost marks
Calling a disinfectant a sterilant; skipping cleaning before immersion; topping off old disinfectant; treating a UV cabinet as a substitute for chemical disinfection; reusing porous files; and touching clean implements with contaminated gloves.