27 Mar 2021

Surgeons and healthcare professionals worldwide rely on the consistent quality, precision and performance associated with Swann-Morton surgical blades, handles and scalpels. From its manufacturing facility in Sheffield, UK, Swann-Morton produces over 1.5 million surgical blades per day. The current range includes 70 blade shapes and 27 handles that can be used across the various disciplines of general and specialist surgery.

With dental and facial aesthetics in mind Swann-Morton offer the versatile “fine” range of handles and blades. The cutting edge expertise embodied within these blades meet the most demanding and complex requirements presented by modern day Periodontal, Cosmetic, Oral Implantology and Maxillofacial procedures.
The OSHA compliant sterile retractable safety scalpel supports and encourages existing safe passing protocols and safe disposal of sharps in a variety of usage environments. It is currently available in three stainless-steel scalpel blade shapes, which are colour-coded for ease of recognition.

Recent enhancements include;

• Strengthening of the forward temporary lock position to prevent uncontrolled retraction when contacting with bone during use.
• An additional notch to hold the blade more securely in the passing position.
• A permanent lock to be engaged prior to final disposal in a sharps container.

This is particularly relevant with the increasing awareness amongst dental professionals of the need for implementation of effective cross infection controls (CIC) within their practices to protect their staff and themselves from the occupational exposure to blood borne pathogens as a result of sharp’s related injuries. With the emergence of new strains of the Hepatitis virus (HGV) alongside the established HCV and HBV strains, the continuing spread of HIV and the re-emergence of  diseases such as Tuberculosis, now is the time for the responsible dental professional to introduce what could be life saving protocols and associated devices to their working environment. 41% of sharps injuries reported within dental practices are from needlestick before or after use with 1.24% of these injuries resulting in staff contracting a blood borne virus. HTM01-05 advises that all Dental practices should have  an infection control policy together with guidelines and procedures including minimising the risk of blood-borne virus transmission with particular attention to the possibility of sharps injuries.

With today's Dentist carrying out more specialized surgical procedures in areas such as Periodontics, Implantology and Bone Grafting and with a recognized shortage of trained nurses who are familiar with such complex techniques, the retractable disposable scalpel can assist in minimizing the incidence of accidental sharp’s injuries. Even during routine day to day surgery such as the raising of a flap for a root removal or a simple Frenectomy, the threat of a career ending sharp’s related injury is still present, so the retractable disposable scalpel can perform an important function within the overall CIC protocols of the practice.

Swann-Morton's single use sterile blade remover compliments the safety scalpel by assisting in the safe removal of a contaminated surgical blade from the traditional metal surgical handles whilst alternatively the BRU Blade Removal Unit will remove and hold up to 100 blades of various sizes.
Where only Swann-Morton will do.