The Finger Contamination of Dentists and an Examination of Current Sterilization Methods
1981 Volume 31 Issue 2 Pages 108-130
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1981 Volume 31 Issue 2 Pages 108-130
There is a great deal of literaturature on the sterilization of fingers of physicians and dentists beginning with the pioneer effort of Fürbringer and the development of various sterilizers, sterilization methods and length of sterilization time.
This is particularly true of clinical dentistry where the dentists come in contact with their patients with naked hands, this situation leading to a possibility of bacterial contamination from dentist to patients or from patients to dentist. For this reason, the present study was undertaken with questionnaires to investigate the finger contamination of dentists and, at the same time, to examine the sterilization methods currently in use in dental clinics.
2 obtained the following results.
1. The sterilization effects after 5 minutes were 98.5% for 0.1% benzalkonium chloride, 97.8% for Hibisclub, 95.4% for 0.02% chlorhexidine, and 90.5% for 2% creosol.
2. Regarding daily variations in bacterial colonies, on the days when the number of outpatients was relatively small, there was a tendency toward increased bacterial colonies. When the fingers were not washed with soap before a dental treatment, a positive reaction was seen in DHL media. When stained by the Gram's method, there were some Gram-negative lactobacilli and Gram-positive streptococci.
3. As regards finger contamination in terms of different dental treatments, it was 15.6times in crown preparation 13.9 times in the enlargement of pulp cavity, 12.8 times in scaling, 10.0 times in the installation of crowns, 9.4 times in inlay preparation, and 9.2 times in dental extraction.
4. The questionnaires concerning finger contamination sent to practising dentists gave the following responses.
(1) The majority of them used cresol for sterilizing purposes followed by benzalkonium chloride, chlorhexidine, and benzethonium chloride. There were some dentists who used soap alone.
(2) As for the length of sterilization, 41.7% immersed their fingers in a disinfectant for about 5 seconds, and the rest for about 2 seconds, 15 seconds, or longer than 30 seconds.
