Objective: Dental infections are those in which microbe come into direct contact with blood or saliva in the dental clinic environment, indirect contact through contaminated instruments and equipment, or aerosol droplets during the use of handpiece or...
Objective: Dental infections are those in which microbe come into direct contact with blood or saliva in the dental clinic environment, indirect contact through contaminated instruments and equipment, or aerosol droplets during the use of handpiece or ultrasonic scaler. This study aimed to estimate the cost of dental infection management to protect the health of patients and dental worker, and compare it with the actual cost of infection management of some dental institutions, and provide basic data for establishing health insurance and health policy.
Material & Method: Based on the CDC's Standard Dental Infection Control and Prevention Guide and Korea's Standard Dental Infection Control Policy Manual, the amount required to implement standard infection control was determined. In addition, a total of 20 dental clinics were surveyed and compared to standard infection control to determine the time and cost of the items actually spent on infection control in dentistry.
Result: The cost required for a patient to visit a dentist is 2,434 won for examination, 705 won for iintraoral radiograph, 2,890 won for cleaning, 14,588 won for periodontal operation, 3,040 won for cavity treatment, 3,256 won for root canal treatment, and 16,539 won for third molar extraction. The standard protocol infection control cost was higher than the actual amount used by dental clinics, and the cost of bleeding treatments was higher than other treatments because they included disposable surgical suits. The cost of infection control was high when the person responsible for infection control, the a lot of dentists, and the medical certification authority (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Effective infection control in dental clinics requires training of dental workers on dental infection control based on infection control officers. In addition, appropriate compensation for the cost of dental infection control, which is a major limitation of dental infection control, will naturally increase the practice of infection control.