The Effectiveness Of Decontamination Methods In Dental Instruments

Han, Se Jin; Lee, Jae Hoon; Kim, Kyung Wook

Abstract

The decontamination of instrument used in extraction or oral surgery before sterilization is the most basic first step.This procedure should be performed to remove gross contamination by blood,saliva dental materials that harbor microorganisms and impair the sterilization. The decontamination of instrument is used by mechanical or chemical methods. The methods used mainly are ultrasonic cleaner,presoaking agent, auto-wash cleaner and manual cleaning. These methods is used by one or combination and have the advantage and disadvantage. In this study, when the decontamination of dental instrument was used by one or combination, the effectiveness of the each method was compared and the advantage and disadvantage of the methods used were evaluated. To do this, after the basic extraction instrument set(dental mirror, suction tip, cotton pliers, hemostat forcep,surgical curette, extraction forcep, extraction elevator)were contaminated by using human fresh blood under same condition,the contaminated instrument set were decontaminated by using 8 experimental decontamination methods. After decontamination,the presence of blood was determined by using qualitative colorimetric blood-indicating strips. We assigned to each result a numerical "blood score ", which ranged from 0 to 5,with 5 indicating the greatest concentration of blood. We then completed our statistical analysis with a non-parametric alternative to the one-way ANOVA for use with comparisons of ordinal data.When we analysed all experimental groups by the one-way ANOVA,we found a statistically significant difference(P<0.05)among the groups. The methods used for Group 8(ultrasonic cleaner with presoaking agent)was the most effective in removing blood from instruments. The methods used for Group 3(only presoaking agent)were the least effective in removing blood from contaminated instruments. According to the above results, we could know that the blood of instruments remained, even after the contaminated instruments were precleaned and that the effectiveness of decontamination as methods used was different.