Effectiveness of Dental Office Instrument Sterilization Procedures

Biologic monitoring and causes of failure in cycles of sterilization in dental care offices in Mexico

“…11,12,[14][15][16][17] The most commonly reported causes of sterilization failure include both instrument handling and problems with the sterilizer, such as improper cleaning of instruments, improper packaging, improper loading, improper procedure (human error), malfunctioning of the equipment, unit maintenance problems, high frequency of sterilizing cycles in a day, and lack of monitoring of the sterilizer operation. 4,11,12,18,19 In our study, after the second and the third monitoring of the sterilizing cycle with the BIs and the careful analysis of the equipment questionnaires with positive results, the main causes of failure were improper procedure (preheat, temperature, or time), the absence of the supervision of the procedure performed by an assistant, and improper maintenance (including the electrical system).…”

Influence of microwave sterilization on the cutting capacity of carbide burs

“…The two other physical sterilization methods investigated in this study, autoclaving and microwaving, showed a negative influence on the performance of the carbide burs. The sterilization by autoclave is based on microorganism denaturation, achieved by the action of both heat and humidity 9 , 14 , 24 , 35 . Although the autoclave caused little visible surface deterioration in the geometrical characteristics 23 , the loss of cutting capacity shown by the autoclaved burs may be explained by corrosion of the burs that may have dulled their cutting edges 35 .…”

Sterilization and Biologic Monitoring in Private Dental Clinics in Lebanon

“…Data related to sterilizers performance using spore tests among dentists in developed countries, such as the USA, [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Canada, 18 Norway, 6,19 Denmark, 5 Spain, 20 and Germany, 21,22 are two to four decades old for the most part, confirming that quality assurance of sterilization has become an integral and highly protocoled part of practice in these countries. Related information in developing countries is somewhat more recent, indicating that this issue has only lately started to gain serious interest.…”