Infection control, safety, and occupational health regulations
Standard precautions in practice
Maryland dental infection-control rules follow current CDC guidance and OSHA bloodborne-pathogen requirements. Treat all blood and saliva as potentially infectious. Use gloves, masks, protective eyewear, and gowns as indicated. Perform hand hygiene before and after patient contact and after glove removal. Clean and disinfect surfaces with an EPA-registered hospital disinfectant, use barriers where appropriate, and sterilize reusable critical instruments by autoclave or another approved method. Monitor sterilizers with biological spore testing and keep logs.
Occupational health
A written exposure-control plan must describe safer sharps, PPE, housekeeping, laundry, regulated waste, and post-exposure procedures. Offer hepatitis B vaccination to at-risk employees at no cost after training. If a needlestick or splash occurs, wash the site, report immediately, identify the source patient when permitted, and arrange evaluation and post-exposure prophylaxis. Confidential medical records stay separate from personnel files.
Worked example
A hygienist sustains a needlestick after scaling. She should not squeeze or scrub the wound. She washes with soap and water, reports to the infection-control officer, completes an incident report, and is evaluated for HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C prophylaxis or follow-up. The source patient's consent and privacy rules apply to testing.
Traps that cost marks
Gloves alone are not standard precautions. Do not skip spore testing or documentation. Do not delay reporting an exposure to finish the schedule.