Here are a few more ways to stay even safer at your next appointment:Be on glove patrol. If your dentist or hygienist walks into your examination room already wearing gloves, you can ask them to put new ones on. “They could have put them on right outside the door,” says Paster, “but how are you to know that?”Watch where they touch. Your dentist is looking around, then heads to the computer to record what she sees, then starts touching your mouth again. Guess what—you just swapped spit with the computer mouse, used by every hygienist who works in the room. If you see this happening, or they wipe their forehead or answer the telephone with their gloves on, you’re well within your rights to ask for new gloves or instruments, says Paster.Beware the suction tube. “Every patient gets a new, sterile outer core of the suction tube,” says Paster. “But the inner tube is not necessarily washed for each patient.” Closing your mouth around the suction tube can cause backwash from the tube—which could include saliva and blood from previous patients—to enter your mouth. Yuck! Ask the hygienist to use the suction throughout the procedure, so he can handle excess saliva without making you touch the tube. More From Prevention: The 10 Worst Germ Hot Spots
