The Risk of Infection Transmission by Students in the Dental Clinic of the School of Dentistry Using the Six Sigma Model

Infection prevention is a basic issue in the dental profession and the transmission of infectious diseases is an important issue in dentistry. The present study was performed to evaluate the risk of infection transmission by students in the restorative department of the School of Dentistry using the Six Sigma model.

This cross-sectional study was performed in the first three months of 2016. The subjects of the study consisted of 265 dentistry students in the restorative department of the dental school, 30 of whom were randomly selected as the sample. Data were collected using a standard checklist. Using the fish bone diagram, the causes and the most important defects were identified and the Six Sigma model was used to analyze the quality of the process.

Fifty-nine defects were detected in the restorative department. The most important defects which were identified as the first three factors, respectively, were: the lack of skills, experience and education of dental students in infection control, not washing of hands by dentists before wearing latex gloves, and not pressing the water and air poar for 15 seconds before use for each patient.

The results of the study showed that knowledge of students about infection control is insufficient and there is a need for more education with strict supervision in this field.