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

Abstract

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.