Foundations: Building the Safest Dental Visit

Current COVID-19 Interim Guidance

Find the most up-to-date information about infection prevention and control practices on CDC’s COVID-19 page, including CDC’s Infection Control Guidance for Healthcare Professionals about Coronavirus (COVID-19), which is applicable to all U.S. settings where healthcare is delivered, including dental settings. For more information, see CDC Updates COVID-19 Infection Prevention and Control Guidance.

Dental x-ray
Clinician washing their hands.
Dentist's Chair
Dentist Appointment - Hygienist and Senior Patient

A web-based, interactive, self-paced training designed to help increase adherence with established infection prevention and control guidelines among dental healthcare personnel.

This training provides an overview of the basic expectations for safe care—the principles of infection prevention and control that form the basis for CDC recommendations for dental healthcare settings. Learners who complete the training are eligible for 3 Continuing Education (CE) credits, provided by the Organization for Safety, Asepsis, and Prevention (OSAP).

Key Features

  • Use anywhere, anytime, on most computer, tablet, or other mobile devices
  • Self-paced, so learners can complete at their own convenience
  • Interactive audio and video material
  • Reference page with additional resources

Intended Audience

  • Dental healthcare personnel
  • Infection prevention coordinators
  • Dental educators
  • Dental consultants
  • Dental, dental hygiene, and dental assisting students
  • Members of the public that want to understand how dental offices keep patients safe

Overview of Foundations

  • Module 1: Foundations of Infection Prevention and Control introduces infection prevention and control for dental settings, reviews existing guidelines, recommendations, and resources, and describes the fundamentals of evaluating dental infection prevention programs.
  • Module 2: Protecting Patients, Protecting Yourself reviews hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette, sharps safety, and safe injection practices.
  • Module 3: Sterilization, Disinfection, and the Dental Environment reviews the sterilization process, environmental infection prevention and control guidelines, and dental unit water line safety.
Image: The cycle of infection transmission from patient to patient, patient to dentist, and dentist to patient.

Foundations Media training videos can be used to educate and train dental health care personnel, infection prevention coordinators, educators, consultants, and the general public about safe dental visits.

Frequently Asked Questions

Foundations is hosted on the CDC TRAIN learning platform. To access the course, you will need to register on CDC TRAIN. Alternately, you also can search for course ID 1092544 on CDC TRAIN.

If you are a returning CDC TRAIN user, select the link in the red banner that takes you to the sign-in page. Once you sign in, CDC TRAIN will redirect you to the training course.

If you are a new TRAIN user:

Select the “create an account” link in the red banner
Complete the sign-up process on the next page
Choose a group when CDC TRAIN prompts you to do so
Select the category that best describes your work role
Press the green button to confirm your selection
Select “Finish Creating Account”

Remember to complete your profile, accessible by selecting your user name from the top right corner of the TRAIN platform, which will allow you to access other courses on CDC TRAIN.

If you have a TRAIN account from another affiliate, like a state health department, you may need to add the CDC group to your profile for the training to appear. To do so, select your name at the top right, then “Your Profile,” and then the Manage Groups tab. Select the “Join Another Group” button, and search for CDC.

You can begin the Foundations training by selecting “Launch.” If you leave the site and sign in again, you can access the training from the “Your Learning” menu.

Learn more about using TRAIN.

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