Validation, calibration and servicing: what each word means

Servicing, validation, calibration, statutory examination and functional checks are different activities, carried out by different people and producing different records. They are often confused, and the confusion causes real problems: a practice believes a duty has been met when the document it holds does not show that.

Servicing is planned maintenance to the manufacturer's schedule to keep equipment working: replacing wearing parts, cleaning, adjusting and testing operation. It produces a service report. Validation is documented proof that a process consistently achieves what it is meant to; for decontamination equipment under HTM 01-05 that means installation, operational and performance qualification followed by periodic tests, producing validation and test records. Calibration compares an instrument's reading against a reference of known accuracy and adjusts it if necessary; it produces a calibration certificate traceable to a standard. A statutory examination, such as the PSSR examination of a pressure system, is an independent check by a competent person against a written scheme; it produces a report of examination. A functional check confirms that something operates; it says nothing about accuracy.

Dynamo Dental carries out servicing, repair and installation, and records functional checks. It does not validate, calibrate or examine, and a service report from us should never be read as a certificate of any of those things.