Health and safety

All health care sectors are subject to much regulation and dentistry is no exception.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we answer your frequently asked questions on screening staff, contact tracing, referring staff for testing, and if a patient or staff have COVID-19.

Advice

Dental unit waterlines

Emergency drug poster

Health and safety

Healthcare waste - under review (May 2023)

Infection control

Medical devices

Medical emergencies

Medical emergencies poster

Prescribing and medicines management

Radiation - Guidance Notes for Dental Practitioners on the Safe Use of X-ray Equipment (2nd Edition)

Radiation - Advice on guidance of Safe Use of X-ray Equipment 2nd Edition

Expert templates

Health and safety

Adverse incidents (duty of candour) protocol

Audit - Supplier contracts

Amalgam use and disposal protocol

Chaperone policy

Environmental policy statement

Fire action notice

Health and safety policy

Latex policy

Manual handling assessment

Manual handling techniques

Infection control and decontamination

Decontaminating laboratory items

Hand hygiene protocol

Healthcare waste audit

Healthcare waste disposal policy

Hepatitis B - vaccine response letter

Infection control annual statement - England

Infection control policy

Inoculation injuries policy

Manual cleaning protocol

Moving instruments to and from an LDU protocol

New equipment selection protocol

Safer sharps - protocol and risk assessment for non-use

The National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2021 requires healthcare premises to carry out cleaning tasks and a wide number of other issues; however, the Chief Dental Officer has confirmed that many of the points set out in the document are not required to be undertaken in general practice. In addition, the CQC has confirmed that it WILL NOT expect practices "to display star ratings or logos in dental practices" and has updated its Dental Mythbuster 38: Infection prevention and control that details what it will inspect on.

To meet these requirements (and those of the National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness which are applicable to high-street dentistry), we have produced cleaning schedules, including separate documents for each procedure that must be carried out at different times. These can be modified to suit what happens in individual members' practices and please note that the first three are purely reminders for the responsible person and are not required to be completed.

Cleaning schedule - frequency AM after touch

Cleaning schedule - frequency AM after clinical procedure

Cleaning schedule - frequency AM session

Cleaning schedule - frequency daily

Cleaning schedule - frequency weekly

Cleaning schedule - frequency fortnightly

Cleaning schedule - frequency monthly

Cleaning schedule - frequency bi-monthly

Cleaning schedule - frequency annual

Cleaning schedule - frequency every two years

Cleaning schedule - frequency every three years

Prescribing

Patient group direction

Prescribing and dispensing policy

Prescriptions for private patients

Radiation protection

Radiation protection - employers written procedures

Radiation equipment testing

Radiation protection file

Risk Assessment

Risk assessment - dental practice

Risk assessment - hepatitis B non-responder

Risk assessment - pregnant and nursing mothers

Risk assessment - trainee nurse

Risk assessment - work experience student

Events

Training essentials courses for the dental team, including:

Leading a dental team
Running a safe and compliant practice

Webinars: live and on-demand lectures covering a range of subjects.
Conferences: information about the annual British Dental Conference and Exhibition, the Scottish Dental Conference and Exhibition, and group conferences for dentists in community and hospital dentistry
Branches and sections events listing

One-to-one advice

Extra and Expert members have access to unlimited one-to-one advice via phone or email from our experienced advisors. Contact our Practice support team on 0207 563 4572 or email: advice.enquiries@bda.org.

We may record telephone conversations that are advisory in nature to offer you additional security, resolve complaints and improve our service standards. Conversations may also be monitored for staff training purposes. You will be alerted to this when you call.