[Significance of infection control in dentistry: a review]

Dental care is a field of high priority regarding the risk of infections. Since many carriers are not aware of their infection, it may happen that the dentist meets a patient, in whom an earlier infection can be proven by serology, but the patient is not aware of it and the clinical signs and symptoms are missing, as well. For this reason, the dentist has to consider every patient potentially infected. On the other hand, health-care workers are not only susceptible persons to infections but they can also be sources of infections. In order to prevent the nosocomial infections the dentist has to ensure the hygienic protection of both the patients and the health-care workers. All the health-occupational measures have to be known and have to be kept by the dental personnel. The health personnel has to be informed on the risk and how to prevent infections. The essential importance of hygiene, the role of protective equipment and all the duties connected with should be emphasized. Furthermore, the continuing education of health-care workers is indispensable regarding the infectious diseases. In order to reduce the risk of nosocomial infections the authors summarize the state-of-the-art knowledge of infection control.