Surgical/Dental Instruments are precision made hand tools of a higher order. Each piece is hand-crafted and hand-polished to provide the surgeon/dentist with a fine quality, reliable and long lasting instrument. As with all precision tools, surgical/dental instruments require and benefit from proper and routine maintenance. The following points should be observed and practised at all times:

1. Each instrument should de carefully cleaned, manually or ultrasonically, immediately after use. Particular attention should be paid to joints, serrations and crevices. In the absence of an ultrasonic cleaner, instruments should be cleaned by rinsing first in cold temperature. It is important that the surface of the instrument is not scratched by an abrasive cleaning agent. Wire wool and scouring powders should never be used since these are particularly detrimental to the surface finish of the instrument.
2. After cleaning, each instrument should de thoroughly dried and examined to ensure that all detritus has been removed. Store by hanging or racking using Mayo Safety or special instrument pegs.
3. Autoclave using appropriate and accepted techniques.
4. Where sterilisation is by boiling, care must be taken in hard water areas to prevent lime scale build-up in the boiler which will, if allowed, form a deposit on stainless steel instruments. In many instances, this build-up can be of reddish colour and is often mistaken for rusting. IF STAINLESS STEEL INSTRUMENTS ARE PROPERLY WASHED, CLEANED, DRIED®ULARLY CARED FOR, RUSTING CANNOT TAKE PLACE. Any water scale deposit can be removed by washing in hot soapy water and polishing with a soft cloth. Please do not use abrasive cleaning or polishing agents
5. Every surgical/dental instrument should be treated individually; tipping a basket of instruments into a sink or dropping them one on top of another into a boiler will result in scratching and destruction of the finely polished surface. Once the fine polish is destroyed by bad handling then the instrument is more difficult to clean and sterilise; and becomes prone to scale discolouration. The practice of allowing instruments to dry by residual heat can, in hard water areas, leave a dulling film over the surface which will build up over repeated drying.
6. At regular intervals, after cleaning and during drying and inspection, jointed instruments should be lightly lubricated with a proprietary instrument lubricant. In nearly all cases of joint malfunction, the cause can be traced to impacted detritus in the joint which has become baked hard during repeated sterilisation. In extreme cases this can cause the joint to seize and breakage may occur. Correct cleaning and drying together with periodic lubrication will prevent this. With proper care, as outlined above, and with reasonable handling, quality surgical/dental instruments, as ours, will give good service over a long life span. Misuse and neglect will reduce the service-ability and effectiveness and contribute to an early replacement.