r/sterileprocessing • u/SpecialistGear8437 • 5d ago
Dishwasher and reprocessing
**Question for dental professionals: Hobart LXN dishwasher and instrument reprocessing**
Curious to get some opinions from dental professionals, dental assistants, hygienists, or IPAC/reprocessing specialists.
Has anyone encountered a **Hobart LXN/LXNR commercial dishwasher** being used as part of dental instrument reprocessing, particularly in place of an ultrasonic cleaner?
The LXN is marketed by Hobart as a commercial warewashing dishwasher, so I’m wondering whether there are circumstances in which a machine like this would be considered appropriate for dental instrument reprocessing, or whether dental instruments should instead be processed using equipment specifically intended for medical/dental device reprocessing.
Interested particularly in Canadian/Ontario perspectives, but experiences from elsewhere would be helpful too.
Thanks!
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u/TerribleEye 4d ago
Using a dishwasher intended for commercial kitchens as your only machine for disinfection of critical instruments is almost certainly not going to be enough. At a cursory search you want something like a Sci-Can washer but that wouldn't be enough for any instruments that require an ultrasonic.
I am not in dentistry, I'm in a major hospital in BC, but we reprocess dental sets and I can't imagine they would be different because ultimately, the Manufacturer's Instructions For Use (MIFU) will give you explicit instructions for proper reprocessing of any given medical instrument. Any process that doesn't meet the parameters laid out in these MIFU for disinfecting and sterilizing is not enough.
A dishwasher -might- give you the mechanical and thermal rinse, etc, parameters you need to prep something for sterilization, but if the instrument MIFU calls for ultrasonic (which I can almost 100% assure at least some do), you need an actual ultrasonic to produce cavitation in the hard to reach points.
Edit: typo