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Hand Washing

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DEFINITION OF HANDWASHING:
A fundamental part of standard precaution procedures and disease control for dental personnel; helps reduce or prevent infection and transmittal of microbes among people and objects; for regular dental procedures, liquid soap and water is sufficient but for surgical procedures, antimicrobial cleansers should be used.

A study in Psychological Science suggests that, to get doctors to wash their hands more regularly, hospitals could appeal to their sympathies, changing the message from “wash your hands to protect yourself” to “wash your hands to protect your patients.” The study compared the effectiveness of those slogans when posted in hospitals. The patient-focused sign was associated with a 33 percent …show more content…

Frequent hand washing is one of the best ways to avoid getting sick and spreading illness. Hand washing requires only soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer — a cleanser that doesn't require water.

Soap and detergents
The application of water alone is inefficient for cleaning skin because water is often unable to remove fats, oils, and proteins, which are components of organic soil. However, since pathogens removed from the skin have to be rinsed away, there must be a reasonable flow of water.
Therefore, removal of microorganisms from skin requires the addition of soaps or detergents to water. Currently most products sold as "soaps" are actually detergents, so that is the substance most used to wash hands.
Water temperature
Hot water that is comfortable for washing hands is not hot enough to kill bacteria. Bacteria grow much faster at body temperature (37 C). However, warm, soapy water is more effective than cold, soapy water at removing the natural oils on your hands which hold soils and bacteria. Contrary to popular belief however, scientific studies have shown that using warm water has no effect on reducing the microbial load on hands.

Solid soap
Solid soap, because of its reusable nature, may hold bacteria acquired from previous uses. Yet, it is unlikely that any bacteria are transferred to users of the soap, as the bacteria are rinsed off with the foam.
Antibacterial soap
Antibacterial soaps have

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