HANDPIECE ASEPSIS - A SURVEY OF THE ATTITUDES OF DENTAL PRACTITIONERS

The methods of handpiece asepsis employed by general dental practition ers (GDPs) in England and the problems considered to be associated wit h handpiece sterilisation were investigated by means of a postal quest ionnaire distributed to a random sample of 500 GDPs during July 1993. A total of 267 replies were received (53.4% response). The results ind icated that at the time of the survey, autoclavable handpieces were po ssessed by 90.6% of the respondents (n = 242), with 45.9% (n = 111) of these respondents indicating that they autoclaved their handpieces ro utinely after every patient. Reasons given by respondents for not auto claving handpieces routinely included insufficient handpieces, fear of handpiece damage, cost, and the consideration that sterilisation was not necessary. Handpiece asepsis procedures had been upgraded by 89% ( n = 237) of respondents in the 5 years preceding the survey. Media cov erage was found to have exerted influence on the respondent dentists' behaviour, with the overall incidence of routine handpiece autoclaving increasing by 20.6% after media coverage of the subject.