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Dental Infection Control Awareness Month (#DICAM22)

#DICAM22: Staying in the Know Together

Overview | Weekly Topics | Social Media Toolkit | Infection Prevention & Safety Resources | Additional Resources

Overview

Join us in September by supporting dental safety throughout Dental Infection Control Awareness Month (DICAM)! Join the conversation by sharing the hashtag: #DICAM22.

This year, our theme is “Staying in The Know Together.”

Our goal at OSAP is to serve as the leading provider of infection prevention and control education, training, and credentialing that supports The Safest Dental Visit. There is no better way to do that than by emphasizing and utilizing our community. We can learn from each other and spread the knowledge faster, together.

Through #DICAM22, we want to give the dental community informative and engaging materials to show how to Stay in The Know about the latest dental infection control guidelines to ensure that every dental visit is The Safest Dental Visit.

Weekly Topics

Each week we will focus on a different topic:

  • Hand Hygiene (September 5 – 9)
  • Dental Unit Waterlines (September 12 –16)
  • Instrument Reprocessing (September 19 –23)
  • Personal Protective Equipment (September 26 – 30)

Social Media Toolkit

Patients are more aware than ever. Use #DICAM22 to showcase your infection control and safety practices and demonstrate your commitment to keeping patients safe. We have created a toolkit to make it easy!

Items Included:

  • Customizable patient-facing poster, brochure, and dental staff scripts 
  • Sample Social Media Posts for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter
    • Tips:
      • Using Instagram? Did you know that you can schedule your page posts to run on both Facebook and Instagram? Or, you can create separate IG posts by using some of this content and sharing dental infection awareness in general.
      • Short-form videos - such as IG Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikToks - are being boosted the most on all platforms. Because of this, we will be creating several different videos per topic. Please feel free to repost/share our videos, and, also, keep an eye out for some video ideas from us for you to create coming soon.
      • Any post with an image or video gets more engagement than a post with just plain text, even if it is just the general DICAM graphic.
Download Social Media Toolkit (Zip File)
 

Infection Prevention & Safety Resources

Every dental practice needs an Infection Control Coordinator (ICC) with overall responsibility for managing and coordinating the Infection Prevention and Control Program. OSAP has bundled together FREE resources that describe the responsibilities and how to staff and support this important position. We've also included additional resources, tools, and checklists based on the weekly #DICAM22 topics.

Items included:

  • OSAP/CareQuest Institute Best Practices for Infection Control in Dental Clinics During the COVID-19 Pandemic – a living document with the latest guidance and regulations
  • Planning guide to take ownership of the ICC role, sample ICC job description, and ICIP articles defining the role and outlining tools and resources 
  • Resources, checklists, guidelines, and best practices focusing on Hand Hygiene, Dental Unit Waterlines, Instrument Reprocessing, and Personal Protective Equipment

To access the resources complete a brief form:

Complete the Form
 

Additional Resources