The ICE (Infection Control) exam is the infection-control component of DANB's CDA credential. Like the RHS, it has no eligibility requirements and is often taken on its own, since some states accept it for registration or require it for certain duties.
What's on it
- Patient and dental health care worker education: how diseases spread in the dental setting, standard precautions, immunizations.
- Preventing cross-contamination and transmission: hand hygiene, PPE, barriers, sharps handling, exposure response.
- Instrument and device processing: cleaning, packaging, sterilization methods, monitoring (including spore testing), storage.
- Asepsis in the operatory: surface disinfection, dental unit waterlines, evacuation systems, handling of impressions and prosthetics.
- Occupational safety: the OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard, the Hazard Communication Standard, waste handling.
How to prepare
The ICE rewards people who know the source documents: the CDC's infection-control guidelines for dental settings and the OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard. When a question seems to have two reasonable answers, the one that matches CDC or OSHA language is the one DANB wants. Practice with scenario questions, and pay attention to sequence: order of PPE, order of instrument processing, order of steps after an exposure.