Efficacy of Microwaves and Chlorhexidine for Disinfection of Pacifiers and Toothbrushes: An in vitro Study

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate, in vitro, the contamination of toothbrushes and pacifiers by Streptococcus mutans, and the efficacy of microwave and chlorhexidine for their disinfection. Materials and methods: Sixty pacifiers and 60 toothbrushes were contaminated with S. mutans and then divided into groups according to the disinfection protocol: Group 1-chlorhexidine solution; group 2-microwave sterilization; and group 3-sterile tap water. The devices were evaluated microbiologically after disinfection for the survival of S. mutans colonies and were examined. The results were analyzed statistically by ANOVA and Turkey test. Results: The results of both types of evaluation showed a large number of S. mutans colonies after spraying with sterile tap water, and chlorhexidine spraying and microwaving were effective in eliminating colonies. Groups 1 and 2 were statistically similar to each other (p > 0.05) and differed significantly from group 3 (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The 0.12% chlorhexidine solution spray and 7 minutes of microwave irradiation were almost equally effective for disinfection of pacifiers and toothbrushes.

The Novel Coronavirus: An Alert for Pacifiers’ Disinfection

“…v Sterile water: It has been shown that vigorous cleaning with plain water alone is not sufficient to eliminate pacifier contamination [11]. The sample treated with sterile water remained contaminated [11] as demonstrated by other authors [3,9,10,14].…”

“…v Chlorhexidine 0.12%: Effective in removing S. epidermidis and C. parapsilosis [11], C. albicans [9] and S. mutans [3,9,14]. According to previous authors, it is highly recommended to disinfect pacifiers by spraying an antimicrobial agent such as chlorhexidine 0.12% [10].…”

“…v Microwave: Microwave energy was sufficient to observe disinfection in a pacifier contaminated with C. albicans [9,15] and S. mutans [3,9,14,15]. The relevant data from the articles were displayed in Table 1.…”

“…Among the 8 studies, seven were in vitro experimental [3,8,9,11,[13][14][15]] and a transverse one [10].…”

“…Selected studies were conducted in Brazil (5) [3,8,10,13,15], South Africa (2) [9,11] and India (1) [14].…”