Resumo

ZOCRATTO, Keli Bahia Felicíssimo; SILVEIRA, Adriana Maria Vieira; ARANTES, Diele Carine Barreto  e  BORGES, Luana Vianna. Behavior of students in an integrated dental clinic in terms of guidelines for infection control and biosafety. RFO UPF [online]. 2016, vol.21, n.2, pp. 213-218. ISSN 1413-4012.

Objective: To assess the behavior of dental students from a University Center in terms of cross-infection control, comparing the behavior of freshmen and final-year graduates. Subjects and method: The sample of 201 students was divided in two groups (freshmen and final-year graduates), and a structured questionnaire was applied with questions concerning the use of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), sterilization steps, stowage of sterile equipment, disinfection, and surface barriers. A descriptive and comparative data analysis was performed using the chi-square test at 5% significance level. Results: The majority of students (97%) uses PPE, but 16.4% and 29.8% do not discard masks and caps, respectively, and most of these students are final-year graduates. Regarding sterilization steps, 93.5% of students washes instruments, and 59.2% neglect prewashing disinfection. Surface disinfection is performed by 89.6% of students and 94.5% use protective barriers. Graduate students perform less surface disinfection and less sterilization of handpieces, and 93% of the students stow sterile material in their personal bin. Conclusion: The behavior of students regarding the use of PPE, disinfection of surfaces, and use of surface barriers was considered satisfactory when compared with previous studies. In the sterilization steps, the main flaw is prewashing disinfection, regardless of the academic period. Overall, final-year graduates presented more deviant behavior regarding biosafety guidelines, which emphasizes the need of further studies to identify the reasons for such behavior.

Palavras-chave : Students.; Biosafety.; Dental clinic.; Behavior..