Infection Control, Sterilization, and Occupational Safety
Mississippi dental practices must combine Board infection-control rules with federal OSHA requirements. The exam tests standard precautions, sterilization monitoring, and the occupational safety duties that apply to everyone in the office.
Core rules
- Assume every patient may carry bloodborne pathogens; use standard precautions with all patients.
- Perform hand hygiene, use gloves, masks, eye protection, and gowns as task-appropriate, and handle sharps safely.
- Clean and then sterilize reusable instruments; use biological indicators to monitor sterilizer effectiveness at the frequency required by accepted guidelines, and maintain logs.
- Use barriers or disinfect surfaces between patients; manage waterlines and suction according to manufacturer and infection-control guidance.
- OSHA requires an exposure control plan, hepatitis B vaccination offered to at-risk employees, training, PPE, sharps injury logging, and post-exposure evaluation.
Worked example
A spore test is positive. The office should immediately stop using that sterilizer, reprocess affected instruments, check load records, notify the manufacturer or service technician, and document corrective action. Simply rerunning the cycle without investigating is inadequate because the failure may be mechanical or loading-related.
Traps that cost marks
Do not say sterilization kills all spores without monitoring; biological indicators exist because failures occur. Do not rely on chemical indicator strips alone. Do not treat OSHA as optional because it is federal; Board rules may also require infection-control compliance. Do not skip training for front-office staff who may handle contaminated items.
Exam focus
Link each fact to a control: standard precautions, sterilization monitoring, surface barriers, or OSHA exposure control. Documentation of monitoring and corrective action is as important as the technique.