University of Nebraska Medical Center
University of Nebraska Medical Center

Biomonitoring Service

Biomonitoring services

The biomonitoring service is available to dental offices in Nebraska and other health care professionals to assure that their equipment is operating properly to sterilize instruments and other supplies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Dental Association recommend that each sterilizing unit be tested at least weekly.

The college offers a subscription-based service to dental offices to document the effectiveness of their sterilization equipment. Each member dental office is provided a 12-month supply of test strips and pre-paid mailers. At weekly or monthly intervals, the dental office returns a control and a test spore strip to the service for testing.

If the test is positive for bacterial growth, the office is immediately notified that their sterilizer has failed and advised on possible reasons for this failure. If requested, a quarterly biomonitoring log is provided for documentation that the dental office is monitoring their sterilization equipment. A certificate of participation is provided to each subscribing dental office.