Infection Control, Sanitation, and Safety
Know the vocabulary cold
Questions love to test whether you can separate cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization. Cleaning (sanitation) removes visible debris and many microorganisms with soap or detergent and water - it does not kill everything. Disinfection uses an EPA-registered, hospital-grade disinfectant to destroy most pathogenic organisms on non-porous surfaces and implements. Sterilization destroys all microbial life including spores and requires an autoclave or chemical sterilant. A product labeled only a sanitizer, or a quaternary ammonium without a tuberculocidal claim, is not adequate for implements that may contact blood.
Practical rules
- Wash hands before and after every service; wear gloves for waxing, extractions, and any possible blood contact.
- Implements must be cleaned of all debris, dried, then fully immersed in disinfectant for the labeled contact time (commonly 10 minutes) in a covered, labeled container.
- Porous and single-use items - cotton, wooden spatulas, lancets, gloves, towels - are used once and discarded.
- Cracked, rusted, or glue-joined implements cannot be reliably disinfected; discard them. UV cabinets are not a substitute for liquid disinfection.
- Know the SDS (formerly MSDS), OSHA's bloodborne pathogen standard, and standard precautions: treat all blood and body fluids as infectious. Spill: gloves, absorbent, disinfect, closed container.
Rule of thumb: clean first, always - disinfectant cannot penetrate debris, so a dirty implement soaked for ten minutes is still dirty.
Trap: "hospital-grade" means EPA-registered and labeled for the purpose; "medical-grade" and "spa-grade" are marketing words with no legal meaning. Also watch for the reversed answer - disinfection kills most organisms, sterilization kills all.