Influence of endodontic instrument-holder on sterilization efficacy. A pilot in-vitro study.

• Main Author: Angelo Carrizo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad de Concepción. 2013-08-01
• Series: Journal of Oral Research
• Subjects: endodontics; sterilization; efficacy; instrument.
• Online Access: http://www.joralres.com/index.php/JOR/article/view/38/44

Infection control is crucial in dentistry and various methods have been designed to assure its efficacy. However, little information exists regarding the influence it could have the instrument-holder of endodontic files. The aim of this research was to determine the influence of three instruments-holders on sterilization efficacy of endodontic files. Methods: A pilot in-vitro study. 60 endodontic files were contaminated by biomechanical preparation of extracted molars with periapical abscess, then processed according to the standard washing method. The endodontic files were divided into 3 groups (n=20) and assigned to 3 instrument-holders: Metallic box (MB), surgical gauze (SG) and synthetic sponge (SS). Then, the files were packaged and sterilized by autoclaving (134°C/45min). Microbiological culture was performed in thioglycolate solution for each endodontic file (37ºC/5days). Results: The overall sterilization efficacy was 91.7%, 80% for MB, 100% for SS, and 95% for SG, with no statistically significant differences (p=0.06) between the groups. Conclusions: The lack of differences in the efficacy of sterilization may be due to the reduced sample; therefore, a full-size study is necessary to confirm this outcomes. The results of this study discourage the use of the MB as instrument-holder until a full-size study can confirm this data.