Safety-Engineered Needles for Dentistry: Some Clinical Impressions

Safety-Engineered Needles for Dentistry: Some Clinical Impressions

The Needle Safety Regulation (O. Reg. 474/07) under Ontario’s Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) was extended to include dental offices as of July 1, 2010. This Regulation mandates the use of safety-engineered needles (SEN) as opposed to conventional hollow-bore needles in dentistry, as well as in other healthcare professions and locations. This Regulation is enforceable by the province’s Ministry of Labour. Strictly speaking, non-compliance with OSHA is illegal and punishable by fines up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment up to 12 months.1 Clearly then, compliance with this Regulation is in any dentist’s best interest.

Currently there is only one option for intraoral injection from Septodont (Ultra Safety Plus XL). Its design and use has recently been reviewed elsewhere, so the focus of this article is on the intramuscular and intravenous aspects of drug administration in dental practices.2 After contacting a number of companies some of them (Becton Dickinson, The Kendall Company and Terumo) sent a number of their SEN products to the author for clinical use. The following briefly relates the subsequent clinical experiences with these devices. The products in this review are grouped alphabetically. This review is not intended to be authoritative or all-inclusive, but will hopefully serve as a guide to help other clinicians choose their SEN products.

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Source: Peter J. Nkansah, M.Sc., DDS, Dip. Anaes., Specialist in Dental Anaes. | Oral Health Journal