Intended for dental healthcare personnel, Foundations: Building the Safest Dental Visit is focused on the basics of infection prevention. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is offering a new training resource focused on infection prevention and control for dental healthcare personnel. While much of the infection prevention focus in the last year has been on COVID-19, this training resource is focused on the basics. 

Foundations: Building the Safest Dental Visit is an online, self-paced training that provides an overview of the basic expectations for safe care—the principles of infection prevention and control that form the basis for CDC recommendations for dental healthcare settings. 

The training program is intended for dental healthcare personnel, infection prevention coordinators, educators, consultants, and other who want to understand the science and methods of infection prevention and control in this setting. 

The training is available for free to learners through CDC TRAIN

CDC has partnered with the Organization for Safety, Asepsis and Prevention (OSAP) to increase the reach of this training. Through OSAP, 3 free ADA CERP CE credit hours will be available to learners who complete the Foundations training. 

According to the course description, the training covers three content areas: 

  • Module 1: Foundations of Infection Prevention and Control introduces infection prevention and control for dental settings, reviews existing guidelines, recommendations, and resources, and describes the fundamentals of evaluating dental infection prevention programs.  
  • Module 2: Protecting Patients, Protecting Yourself reviews hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette, sharps safety, and safe injection practices.
  • Module 3: Sterilization, Disinfection, and the Dental Setting reviews the sterilization process, environmental infection prevention and control guidelines, and dental unit water line safety.

Learn more: Infection prevention consultant Jackie Dorst on why the orthodontic team should take the CDC’s new free CE infection prevention training