Dorothy J. Rowe

Effects of mandatory continuing education related to infection control on the infection control practices of dental hygienists

HighlightsMandatory continuing education affected dental hygienists’ infection control practices.Compliance with infection control guidelines is essential for patients and clinicians.All states should require infection control continuing education for dental hygienists. &NA; The infection control (IC) practices of dental hygienists, who were practicing in states with and without mandatory continuing education (CE) related to IC, were compared using a nationwide survey approach. The percentages of respondents from states with mandated IC CE, who reported compliance with 8 practices described in the current IC guidelines and acquiring more CE units and taking more recent IC CE, were greater (P < .005) than the percentages of respondents from states without the requirement.