Mobile Phone Hygiene: Potential Risks Posed by Use in the Clinics of an Indian Dental School

Abstract

The objectives of this cross-sectional study were to determine the level and type of bacterial contamination of the mobile phones of dental personnel involved in direct patient care and to determine the usefulness of cleaning with 70 percent isopropyl alcohol for decontamination. Dental faculty and trainees in an Indian dental school were asked to participate in a study in which a questionnaire concerning patterns of mobile phone use and disinfection was administered. Swabs from mobile phones of the participants were taken using moist sterile swabs and plated on blood agar plates. The bacteria isolated were identiied by biochemical tests. Eighteen percent of the participants (n=9) reported using their phones while attending patients. Nearly 64 percent (n=32) used their mobiles for checking time, and 64 percent (n=42) reported never cleaning their phones. In total, ifty mobile phones were cultured for microorganisms: 98 percent (n=49) were culture-positive, and 34 percent (n=17) grew potentially pathogenic bacteria. There was signiicant reduction in the mean number of colony-forming units after decontamination with alcohol (p<0.001). The bacterial load was reduced by around 87 percent. The results of this study show that mobile phones may act as an important source of nosocomial pathogens in the dental setting. Therefore, it is important for dental school administrators to encourage higher compliance with hand-washing practices and routine surface disinfection through framing of strict protocols to reduce the chances of occurrence of nosocomial infections.Dr.

Evaluation of the Cell Phone Microbial Contamination in Dental and Engineering Schools: Effect of Antibacterial Spray

“…However, mobile phones are usually touched during or after the examination of patients without hand washing, but not cleaned and can harbor various pathogens and become a potential source of hospital associated infections among patients and even medical staff [7]. Mobile phones harbor pathogens microorganism, and high temperature cause increasing the amount of microorganisms.…”

Microbial isolates associated with mobile phones of healthcare providers in a tertiary care hospital

“…Kilic et al 15 found that only 33% of mobile phones that were cleaned at least once a week with alcohol were contaminated, albeit solely with S.epidermidis. While Jayalakshmi et al 16 established that 70% isopropyl alcohol disinfected nearly all mobile phones in their study, with a gross reduction in the number of organisms, Ramesh et al 17 , found that it was the act of daily cleaning, not the cleaning method used (alcohol versus dry cloth) that was significantly associated with amount of growth, corroborated by Singh et al 18 . This questions the efficiency of alcohol as a cleaning agent for mobile phones and indicates that further investigation is needed into the optimal disinfection method for these devices.…”

Reduction of microbial contamination of mobile phones using ultraviolet UV radiation and ozone

“…Pathogen transmission and their long-lasting survival impose the implementation of strategies that indicate mandatory regular disinfection procedures of everyday household items. Preventive measures, including the use of alcoholbased disinfectants or bactericidal substances with nanosilver compounds in disinfection of different surfaces, are recommended by a number of authors (Singh et al, 1998(Singh et al, , 2010Ulger et al, 2009). Pulit et al (2011) describe the nanosilver as a highly effective antimicrobial and anti-fungal agent, used for creating aseptic conditions.…”

“…The mobiles can be also effectively disinfected with 70% isopropyl alcohol-based means or wipes saturated in the solution of 0.5% chlorhexidine and 70% isopropyl alcohol (Brady et al, 2009). Singh et al (2010) conducted a telephone disinfection using disin-fecting wipes moistened with 70% isopropyl alcohol. The authors obtained a reduction of bacteria on phones by 87%.…”

“…Therefore, it is necessary to search for the methods of safe disinfection. The activity of isopropyl alcohol was only tested so far, and also the attention to the disinfection of surfaces and hands was pointed out (Bhat et al, 2011;Singh et al, 2010;Sumritivanicha et al, 2011;Julian et al, 2012;Auchrim, 2013). The new devices encouraging disinfection, which are based on UV radiation, ozone or nanotechnology appeared in the market.…”