S2E4 Dove Dental: Must haves for the Infection Control Coordinator

Level Up Infection Prevention Podcast

In this episode of the Level Up Infection Prevention Podcast, we have invited Jim Langeloh from Dove Dental Products, a company dedicated to developing and bringing to the market cost-effective disposables for increasing patient safety. With their new products in the market, Jim shares his time to explain their latest products, all about backflow in the dental operations, how to prevent it, and why we should all be concerned about it. Don’t miss out!

All About Dove Dental Products

[01:04]

DOVE Dental Products’ presence in the dentistry industry has progressed since they started as a small start-up a few years ago. Because of COVID, disposables have been put on the map in the last two years. DOVE Dental advanced the product with more safety standards. They started as a saliva ejector valve and an HPE valve. Now, they’ve progressed to aerosol capturing HVE, saliva ejectors that capture aerosols. Backflow preventers are installed in every system. It's all about staying safe. As a result, they have a staff committed to developing safer products.

What is Backflow?

[03:05]

Similar to a straw when you're drinking out of a glass when you close around it, the fluid goes back the wrong way. Patients close around a saliva ejector, and it’s proven that 1 in 4.5 patients received backflow. Unfortunately, that's all the stuff that is inside this valve that has the likelihood of going the wrong way. If we're looking at 25% of the time and look at the market, most people never cleaned these.

[04:08]

All those patients in between are at tremendous risk for backflow. It happens in saliva ejectors, but the research points right to HVE. Unfortunately, it's the same vacuum. And if the patient closes around the HVE, they're just as likely to get backflow, whether it's HVE or SE, because of the same vacuum.

[04:39]

Backflow is when the changes in air pressure go the wrong way. What affects it is our air pressure changes from room to room.

Importance of Sterilizing

[05:53]

Go to your dental chair and look at the original instruction guides. Under the assistance instrumentation guides, you will find that there are roughly two to three pages each for cleaning between patients cleaning routinely. Sterilizing, disassembling, etc., they give you a full view page of an extensive document of what should be done between patients. DOVE Dental Products guarantees that the valves are clean, disposable, and can stop that backfill from occurring.

Evacuation Valves

[11:00]

One powerful thing that you can see is evacuation valves, and DOVE Dental is the only one that makes disposable evacuation valves. But there are innovative products on the market that address aerosols and help the patient and the dental professional stay safer. One of the most impactful things is evacuation. It's chairside, usually right over the patient, and patients can see firsthand. It’s not that old 1972 evacuation valve. It’s something new, looks safe, and works a little more advanced in their mouth.

In today's environment, we hear it all the time. It looks clean, and you are guaranteed that you don’t have to worry about backflow.

Double Arrow Saliva Ejector

[15:26]

The double arrow saliva ejector is shortened. DOVE Dental had a panel of hygienists they worked with changing the saliva ejector’s distance. They shrunk a standard saliva ejector down by almost two and a half inches. You can still make your turns, twists, and you can still access the patient's full mouth with the saliva ejector. They created sort of a funnel, where it connects to an HPE, and that funnel has just the right amount of air to give you a full poll on a slide projector.

Double Arrow Wide Mouth Saliva Ejector

[16:55]

The double arrow wide mouth has eventually settled on 22 millimeters. DOVE Dental came out with this huge wide mouth HBE, and it has exterior holes on the outside that allow you to capture aerosol if it sneaks by this huge 22-millimeter opening.

Affordable Products

[24:00]

DOVE Dental has made ten or more price decreases to make their products more affordable. Now, they are doing BOGOs and just trying to make sure any type of office can afford them, whether school or large group practice or just the small office. That’s the goal of DOVE Dental, which they continue to address as a team.

Tailcaps

[26:59]

These are super inexpensive little pieces of rubber, and you could reuse them. They're designed to be disposable. But it's a dual Tailcap, meaning it does two things. First, its cover slide projector covers HVE. It just makes things a little easier between patients. The other option is the patient’s leaves, tubing gets wiped down, the disposable valve gets tossed, and no one gets placed right on. Tail caps are great if you're a lengthy cleaner between repeat patients. If you're a fast change or have rooms, you can swap valve to valve, making it nice and easy. And that's why it's important to have those little tail pieces clean.

If you want to know more about DOVE Dental Products, visit their website at

https://www.dovedentalproducts.com/