Hi I am a new grad, the office I work in has alcohol gauze in all the rooms, what are some good uses for this in hygiene…so far I have used it to clean my loupes at the end of the day and to wipe the glass of my hand mirror so it does not get streaky. This may be a silly question, but in school we never used it…
This is not a silly question! Though I wasn’t taught this in hygiene school, in reading dental assisting books, I found that some dentists like to wipe the diaphragm of an anesthetic carp with alcohol before using it. Some dentists wipe their composite placement and contouring instruments with alcohol, which in my reading, isn’t a good idea. Some clinicians may use alcohol to wipe mouth mirrors to remove spots, but corrosion can be an issue. There may be more uses, but like you, in hygiene school we didn’t use alcohol wipes either, because alcohol can degrade materials.
Gauze with alcohol are great for removing fluoride varnish from trays, mouth mirrors, computer mouses etc.!