Archive for month: June, 2020

Amid concerns for safety in dental practices, one UK dental group has made a significant investment to ensure safety for both their team and patients.

Riverdale Healthcare, which incorporates Alpha Dental Care Chester le Street, have announced that they will be first UK dental group to have the revolutionary Radic8, VirusKiller clean air technology installed.

It is now clear that the entire landscape of dentistry will change at least during the transmission phase of COVID-19, forcing the dental profession as a whole to revisit its entire infection control method and policy, bringing about significant policy changes in the wake of the crisis.

Riverdale Director, Ian Gordon explains, “Dentistry has always had excellent standards of cross infection with single use instruments where possible, autoclaving of other instruments and disinfection of hard surfaces. One of the biggest challenges in infection control within healthcare settings is in dealing with the air and whilst there is no real evidence of transmission in a dental practice via this route it has remained an area of some concern.

Therefore, despite the small and theoretical risk of transmission in this way, to make sure our patients receive the best treatment and service, we are the first dental group in the UK to have partnered up with Radic8, who are leading the global fight against airborne viruses and have installed their clean air technology “Viruskillers” in our dental practices.”

The units, which will arrive this week, have a 99.9999% kill rate on all respiratory viruses, including Coronavirus, in a single air pass. The unit aims to completely and constantly recycle the air inside a standard size surgery both during and between patient appointments. While the patient is in the surgery, the unit creates an airflow that drags contaminated air away from the patient and the dentist and releases sterilized air back, creating a continuous cycle.

Ian added “This is a technology not just for now but for the future. Nobody who has lived and worked through this period will forget the impact of Covid 19 – we are confident this additional measure will reassure and protect our patients and staff from what admittedly is already an extremely low risk”.