AR · Sterilization compliance
Arkansas Dental Sterilization Compliance Requirements
A summary of Arkansas's sterilization-monitoring rules for dental practices — the enforcing agency, the biological-monitoring cadence, and the primary citation.
Quick answer
- BI cadence
- Record retention
- Enforcement agency
- Arkansas State Board of Dental Examiners
- Primary citation
- 17 CAR § 115-1506(c)(3)–(5)
Set by the state's own rule
Stated in the rule
Biological monitoring (spore testing)
Arkansas’s own rule requires biological monitoring of each sterilizer at least monthly, using a spore test with a matching control from the same lot — looser than CDC’s weekly recommendation. On a positive test, the sterilizer comes out of service and is retested; if the repeat is positive it stays out of service until inspected or repaired, and items processed since the last negative test are recalled and reprocessed.
Worth flagging: Explicit matching-control requirement (BI and control from the same lot) and a written recall protocol on positive tests.
Federal guidance applied in Arkansas
A native Arkansas rule with its own numbers — not a CDC adoption
Even where state rules are silent on a specific point, the CDC's 2003 Guidelines for Infection Control in Dental Health-Care Settings are the most widely used professional reference. They are guidance rather than law unless a state's rule adopts them — many do by reference — and a board may treat departures from them as unprofessional conduct.
Records commonly kept on file
Whatever a state's stated minimum, these are the sterilization records dental practices commonly maintain:
- A weekly (or per-state-cadence) biological-indicator log with matching control results, lot numbers, and expiration dates
- A per-cycle log identifying sterilizer, operator, and chemical-indicator result
- Documented response to any positive spore test (recall procedure, retest result, root cause)
- Sterilizer maintenance and service records (preventive maintenance + repair)
- A list of staff authorized to operate sterilizers, with training completion dates
- A written infection-control plan referencing CDC 2003 guidelines
How Cuspo handles Arkansas compliance
- Captures BI tests on the cadence that applies to your practice, with matching control results and lot tracking
- Auto-generates an audit-ready PDF of your sterilization records over any date range
- Triggers a documented remediation workflow on every positive spore test
- Maintains tamper-evident audit trail of who logged what and when