Dental offices have been granted an acceptance to s 527 of Alberta’s Occupational Safety Code. The acceptance allows for recapping of used dental needles.
If you practice in a dental office that uses dental needles, follow these and other Best Practices for Recapping Waste Needles:
- After use, needles should be recapped as soon as possible. Best practice is for the operator who uses the needle to recap it.
- Needles should be recapped by using a one-handed scoop technique or commercial recapping device.
- You can find other Best Practices in Policy Protocol Sharps, Syringes & Safety Engineered Syringes (SES)
In addition to the acceptance that allows for recapping needles, dental offices may decide if it is clinically not appropriate to use Safety Engineered Syringes for certain procedures. For dental offices that have this type of policy in place:
- the work procedures in the attached document “Policy Protocol Sharps, Syringes & Safety Engineered Syringes (SES)” dated May 2018 MUST be followed by all dental offices wishing to recap needles under the acceptance
- all other requirements of the OHS Code must continue to be met
- a copy of this acceptance must be posted at each dental office and/or communicated to affected workers