Educational and research aspects of a school-based sterilization monitoring service.

A dental school-based sterilization monitoring service can offer benefits to both the school and the private practitioner. It can foster the development of bonds between the school and the private practice community. It offers the private practitioner a service and a source for answers to infection-control questions. It offers the school an opportunity to extend the arm of the university into the dental community with newsletters, continuing education in the area of infection control, and other approaches to learning. The school also may be able to involve the service or use the service's facilities/equipment in research with appropriate consent from the clients.