Our practice was founded in 2006 by merging two existing practices in Halle (Saale). Our practice and our patient base have grown homogeneously as a result. Together with a third colleague (since 2009) and two prophylaxis assistants our team treats an average of 60 patients a day. On particularly busy days, up to 90 patients visit our practice every day. In addition to general dentistry, we specialize in implantology, periodontology, dental surgery and prophylaxis.
New ideas for instrument reprocessing
For many years, we reprocessed our instruments manually, i.e. with the help of disinfectants, ultrasonic baths and rinsing under running water, before sterilizing them in one of our two autoclaves, either packaged (critical instruments) or unpackaged (semi-critical instruments). This required around 2 hours of staff time per working day. The growth of our practice and the more stringent requirements of the RKI made it necessary to consider automating the reprocessing process. The concept we developed together with Pluradent was as follows: Instead of the previous two autoclaves, we want to use just one autoclave. However, this should be more efficient and have shorter operating times. This would be the only way to save the space and costs for the second autoclave. We wanted to use a thermal disinfector for reprocessing before sterilization, because we wanted to save the time and therefore also the costs required for the previously time-consuming manual cleaning and disinfection of the instruments.
The choice fell on MELAG
There was a large selection of suitable offers and devices, but we decided on the Vacuklav 40 B+ and the MELAtherm 10 thermal disinfector. With the Vacuklav 40 B+, we were convinced by the possibility of being able to operate the device without pause times at short intervals and with fast sterilization cycles. As the autoclave is used for an average of approx. 6 sterilization cycles and over 10 cycles on long days, the decision proved to be the right one. Not only the short operating times, but also the simple operation are convincing from our point of view. The decision in favor of the washer-disinfector was made due to the possibility of integrating the cleaning agents directly in the device, the simple operation and documentation as well as the drying process. On particularly long days, the MELAtherm is started up to 4 times a day. We do not need an additional printer or network connection. Both devices have memory cards that record the processes. We transfer the data to our server once a month.
The quality must be right
The quality of our work is particularly important to our entire team. Patients rightly expect this from us. With regular further education and training, both we doctors and the team ensure that we are always up to date with the latest knowledge. We also expect top quality from our devices and the depots that sell them to us. Otherwise we would certainly have opted for cheaper devices. We have definitely not regretted buying the Vacuklav 40 B+ and the MELAtherm 10, because they work reliably, are easy to operate and (so far) have not shown any weaknesses, even if they are not used in the weaknesses, even if they are used several times a day.
