As a quality assurance or risk reduction measure, dental practices should use a system for critical packages of equipment,
i.e. those critical instruments used in surgical procedures. This requirement arises from AS 4815 section 8.5.2.1 which
states that batch control numbers should be in place to link steriliser cycle batch information of a critical item that has
been sterilised, to the patient. Batch control identification links a pack of surgical instruments used on a patient to a
particular sterilising cycle and thereby allows dental practitioners to demonstrate that those critical dental instruments
used on that patient have been through a particular steriliser cycle with verifiable performance data. This approach does
not apply to semi-critical items used in routine dentistry. Thus, in office-based general dental practice the use of batch
code identification would be limited.