[Assessment of the prevention of healthcare-associated infections in the dental practice in Rabat].

Introduction: in dentistry, many treatments are invasive and can lead to infections. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevention of healthcare-associated infections in the dental practice in Rabat.

Methods: a survey on the prevention of healthcare-associated infections in Rabat dental practices was conducted among 324 practitioners. A self-administered questionnaire was used to assess their training, hygiene, protection, organization of premises, asepsis, antisepsis and use of medical devices. Data were collected using JAMOVI version 1.8.4, the χ and Fisher tests were used to compare the variables, the significance level was set at P<0.05.

Results: only 80 subjects took part in the study. All the dentists had protective equipment, but 68 (85%) did not have instructions on what to do in case of accidental exposure to blood; 41 (62.1%) operators had qualified assistants, 36.4% had a team vaccinated against hepatitis B and 61.3% of operators and assistants had been trained to handle reusable medical devices. Seventy-six studies had isolated examination rooms, 41 had a steam steriliser and a sorting area with sharps collector. However, 35.1% had a contract for the collection of waste generated by health-care activities, posing a significant risk of infection.

Conclusion: the results of this study show that most practitioners in Rabat comply with the majority of the aseptic and hygienic standards in dentistry. However, more needs to be done to ensure that staff are vaccinated.