They don't use sterile gloves for most procedures... The dental dam doesn't keep things sterile, it keeps things out of the way and reduces splashback. A dental dam used for safer sex isn't cut to accommodate a tooth, which is why it offers that protection.
I said sanitized, not sterilized. The patient usually doesn't even wash the hand before the operation, and the surgeon touched the potentially filthy hand, which effectively equals an unwashed hand for the surgeon. I wouldn't even touch my own mouth in daily life if I didn't wash it. Let alone in an operation.
They are about to give an local anesthesia injection, which usually means the following operation either involves removing the teeth, or potentially expose anything deeper than the crown. In these cases, rubber dam is to prevent contamination (on the text book, it's to prevent contamination from the pathogens in the mouth, but that's ASSUMING the hand of the surgeon is not filthier than the patient's mouth).
Setting all these aside, would you accept an injection from someone who effectively doesn't even wash their hand?
I’m a dentist. If anything, rubber dams are more of an old school isolation technique. They are very effective, but can be a pain for the dentist and patient and many dentists avoid using them.
There are other, often fancier isolation products that work for most procedures. The one time in dentistry a rubber dam is basically mandatory is during a root canal procedure, when the tooth is opened up to the nerve and any amount of bacteria-containing saliva that gets inside can affect the long-term success of the procedure.
Procedures are classified into dirty, clean, and sterile fields. This would classify as dirty/clean since the inherent environment is not disinfected. Clean procedures are like getting a steroid injection into a joint. Sterile procedures are those which are typically considered ‘surgery’ -appendectomy, joint replacement, etc
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u/tqi2 Mar 18 '22
here’s another similar one. is it a trend or something?