Needle Sticks?

[WHO DAT]

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I'm curious to know how common of a problem needle sticks are dentistry. As students/practicing dentists, do you ever find yourself tense or catch yourself not being as careful as you should? 😱

 

[dinesh]

They aren't that common.

 

[scottyhoop]

The dentist I shadow has been practicing about 13 yrs. This past year an assitant got stuck. It was the 1st he's had in his office.
Scott

 

[2006Grad]

I was stuck twice in school. I was assisting someone in oral surgery and as they were suturing he did not look as I was holding the cheek back and stuck me. Second time I was doing infiltrations on a patients anterior teeth and I stuck myself. Pretty scary. I almost passed out each time from the stress. I know you cant tell if a patient has hiv or anything by looking at them but they both looked like they had something. I had to go to the school hospital each time with both patients and we all got an hiv test along with hepititis tests. Both test came out negative so I am in the clear. The chance of getting hiv from a needle stick is 0.03%. The stressful part was having to take antiretrovirals for about four days until the results came back. Needless to say I am overly cautious now when dealing with injections.

 

[psiyung]

I was stuck twice in school. I was assisting someone in oral surgery and as they were suturing he did not look as I was holding the cheek back and stuck me. Second time I was doing infiltrations on a patients anterior teeth and I stuck myself. Pretty scary. I almost passed out each time from the stress. I know you cant tell if a patient has hiv or anything by looking at them but they both looked like they had something. I had to go to the school hospital each time with both patients and we all got an hiv test along with hepititis tests. Both test came out negative so I am in the clear. The chance of getting hiv from a needle stick is 0.03%. The stressful part was having to take antiretrovirals for about four days until the results came back. Needless to say I am overly cautious now when dealing with injections.

im a student right now. stuck myself once, but thank god it was before injrecting the pt. Just take or time each time and you should be fine. I was sorta in a rush that day, and thats when the sh1t can hit the fan

 

[WHO DAT]

Thanks for your comments. That was something I wondered about mostly because the mouth is already a pretty confined area to work in and it seems like things can get worse when/if you have a pt. who jerks or moves in the chair. But like y'all said, I'm sure proper technique and being cautious go along way in preventing that sort of thing.