The RDH Under One Roof Conference in National Harbor, Maryland once again brought together dental hygienists, clinicians, and industry leaders focused on advancing patient care through education, innovation, and evidence-based practices. For Seal Shield, the event provided an excellent opportunity to demonstrate how infection prevention extends beyond instruments and operatories to include one of the most frequently touched, yet often overlooked, surfaces in every dental practice: computer peripherals.
Rethinking Keyboard Protection in Dental Practices
Throughout the conference, one of the standout conversations centered around the Seal Silk Pro® Keyboard and how it helps simplify infection prevention without compromising usability.
Many dental practices continue to rely on temporary solutions such as plastic baggies, barrier films, or tape to protect keyboards from contamination. While these methods may provide a basic physical barrier, they can interfere with usability, create unnecessary waste, and require frequent replacement.
Seal Shield showcased a cleaner, more durable alternative.
The Seal Silk Pro keyboard and all of Seal Shield’s other peripheral products are designed to withstand routine disinfection using leading healthcare disinfectants, including CaviCide® and CaviWipes®, allowing staff to clean keyboards as part of their existing environmental cleaning protocols. Instead of covering keyboards with disposable barriers, practices can simply disinfect the keyboard alongside other high-touch clinical surfaces.
The result is a more streamlined workflow that supports infection prevention while reducing clutter and disposable waste in the operatory.
Education Reinforces the Importance of Infection Prevention
Another conference highlight was India Chance’s educational session on infection prevention in dentistry, which reinforced many of the same principles driving innovation in healthcare technology.
Her presentation emphasized that the primary objective of infection prevention is protecting both patients and dental professionals from disease transmission by following evidence-based practices recommended by the CDC and OSHA.
Key topics included:
- Applying CDC guidelines and OSHA standards throughout the dental practice
- Understanding the chain of infection and identifying opportunities to interrupt transmission
- Proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE), hand hygiene, sharps safety, sterilization, and environmental cleaning
- Establishing comprehensive infection prevention programs, including annual reviews and designated infection control coordinators
- Maintaining compliant dental unit waterline management and sterilization protocols
One of the strongest takeaways was that infection prevention is not a single procedure—it is a comprehensive system of policies, products, and daily habits that work together to create the safest possible dental visit.
The ROI of Eliminating Keyboard Barrier Film
One of the recurring themes we heard throughout RDH Under One Roof wasn’t just about infection prevention—it was about the everyday realities of maintaining compliance while keeping operatories running efficiently.
In conversation after conversation with dental hygienists, dentists, and practice managers, many shared that they still rely on disposable barrier film, plastic baggies, or tape to protect keyboards from contamination. While these methods have become common practice, they also create recurring costs, extra steps between patients, and a surprising amount of plastic waste.
Those conversations led to an interesting discussion around the long-term impact. Many hygienists mentioned that their practices see approximately 20–25 patients per day and operate five days per week throughout the year. Using an average barrier weight of 2.2 grams and a surface area of 770 cm², this results in approximately:
- Over 6,250 disposable keyboard barriers used annually
- Approximately 13 kg (30 lb) of plastic waste every year
- Over 450 m² of plastic film annually
To put that into perspective, that’s enough plastic to cover an area larger than a regulation basketball court — all from a single operatory. Based on our conversations, more than three-quarters of the dental practices and schools we spoke with continue to rely on these disposable methods. If that level of adoption were representative across the more than 130,000 dental practices in the U.S., it would equate over 1,700 metric tonnes of plastic waste generated each year from keyboard barriers alone.
Beyond the environmental impact, many attendees pointed out the hidden operational costs; staff time spent applying and removing barriers between patients, maintaining inventory of disposable supplies, and replacing barriers throughout the day.
Sometimes the biggest takeaways from a conference aren’t just the products on display—they’re the conversations that reveal the everyday challenges dental professionals are trying to solve. At RDH Under One Roof, reducing reliance on disposable keyboard barriers was clearly one of them.
Thank You, RDH Under One Roof
We would like to thank everyone who stopped by the Seal Shield booth to experience our infection prevention solutions firsthand and discuss the evolving needs of modern dental practices.
The conversations at RDH Under One Roof reinforced a shared commitment across the dental community: delivering the safest possible experience for every patient begins with practical, evidence-based infection prevention solutions.
We look forward to continuing those conversations and helping dental practices replace temporary workarounds with purpose-built technology designed for today’s clinical environments.
