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inSafe Syringe & Sharps Unit wins Dental Award 2009
09/09/2009
At the prestigious Dental Awards ceremony held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, the inSafe Needlestick Protection System won the Product Innovation of the Year Award. The judges were swayed by the comprehensive development programme behind the system making it the first complete solution to the problem of needlestick injuries in dentistry.
inSafe was developed by Alan Segal and the team of engineers at Astek Innovations Ltd, who set out to provide a solution to this real and dangerous surgery problem and is distributed through-out the UK by Initial Medical Services and Schottlander. As Alan put it “Study after study has shown that the incidence of needlestick injury is grossly under represented”. He continued, “Cleaning the syringe and disposing of the needle are shown to be the most likely times for injury to occur, followed by changing the anaesthetic cartridge, re-capping or during transfer between dentist and nurse. Over five years we have worked towards a system that didn’t just protect against some of these dangers but against all of them”.
Studies in the UK suggest the up to 56% of dental practices experience at least one needlestick injury per year, and that as many as 30% of these constitute a moderate or high risk of transmission of infection.
The judges were impressed with the simple way in which the syringe had a lockable sleeve which slides easily over the needle and locks firmly into place. This means that anesthetic cartridges can be changed without risk and the syringe can be passed safely between dentist and nurse. In addition, the inSafe specially designed sharps unit removes the needle from the syringe in a one-handed motion leaving the syringe ready for sterilization.
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