Docklands Dental Studio becomes an industry leader

Docklands Dental Studio becomes an industry leader

By Jack Hayes

In an age where meticulous cleaning, relentless disinfecting and vigilant public health practices have become the new standard, Docklands Dental Studio is putting minds at ease with pioneering industry technology.

Traditionally reserved for hospital rooms, equipment and operating theatres, Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light can disrupt the DNA structure of bacteria and viruses, subsequently preventing it from replicating or further infecting.

Now, following a second stage 3 lockdown and growing public anxiety of COVID-19 community transmission, Docklands Dental Studio’s owner and principal dentist, Dr Pia Oparkcharoen, took it upon herself to become the first dental clinic in Australia to utilise UV-C technology.

“With this technology, we are staying on top of infection control and can provide the highest standard of cleaning practices,” Dr Oparkcharoen said.

“We do not know if and when you can get it [COVID-19], so for patient confidence, we wanted something that could kill germs and even viruses.”

Dr Oparkcharoen and her team use the UV-C light at the beginning of each workday, between patient appointments and before closing to ensure a comprehensive clean.

Although UV-C disinfecting is used in some hospitals around the world, Dr Oparkcharoen is employing the services of emerging Melbourne start-up MUVI (Mobile UV Innovation).

“It was important for me to work with a local company. Just as we want locals to use us, we wanted to use MUVI,” Dr Oparkcharoen said.

“Coronavirus can come and go, then come back again. We wanted to have this equipment for the long term.”

With more hospitals and health care businesses moving away from a human only clean, citing its inability to control human error or missed surfaces, UV-C is paving the way to a cleaner future.

MUVI director Murray McDonald said although popular among the health care sector, UV-C disinfecting is relevant for almost any workplace or shared space setting.

“We put the light system into a room and turn it on via a remote, then radiates all the highly touched surfaces in the room,” Mr McDonald said.

“In a dental theatre, there are many surfaces that people are touching plus aerosols which come out of people’s mouths, and as we now know, COVID-19 is a mix of droplets and airborne particles. With office spaces, we see some businesses using this UVC between meetings, as well as before and after the workday.”

“It’s a new technology, so people don’t know too much or even think about it, as it’s human-less. At the moment, people think “let’s get more chemicals and clean more often; this is a technology that is doing a bit more than just wiping a surface.”

According to Mr McDonald, industry-standard cleaning and disinfecting is a five-step process. Using UV-C technology, this process is halved.

“Murphy’s law says the spot you miss, is the spot that people touch and that’s the spot that is infected,” Mr McDonald said.

“We’ve had a number of enquiries from different industries from commercial worksites to gyms and offices. This is the first of many technologies we are developing into this space, and all of our products are locally built.”

Docklands Dental Studio is open for business and offering all dental services except cleans •

For more information visit: docklandsdentalstudio.com.au

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