Effect of steam sterilization inside the turbine chambers of dental turbines.
OBJECTIVE
It has been demonstrated that contamination of the insides of high-speed dental turbines occurs and that bacteria as well as viruses may remain infectious when expelled from such turbines during subsequent use. Consequently, it has been widely recommended that a high-speed turbine be sterilized after each patient. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of steam autoclaving on a high-speed dental turbine with a contaminated turbine chamber.


METHODS
Streptococcus salivarius and endospores of Bacillus stearothermophilus were used as test organisms to determine the effectiveness of 4 different small non-vacuum autoclaves and one vacuum autoclave.


RESULTS
The study demonstrated different efficiencies among the small non-vacuum autoclaves, the best showing close to a 6 log reduction of the test organisms inside the turbine chamber. When cleaning and lubrication of the high-speed dental turbine was carried out before autoclaving, this level of reduction was observed for all the examined non-vacuum autoclaves.


CONCLUSIONS
It is concluded that cleaning before sterilization is essential for safe use of high-speed dental turbines and that small non-vacuum autoclaves should be carefully evaluated before being used for the reprocessing of hollow instruments such as high-speed turbines.
Danish Medicines Agency, Inspection and Medical Devices, Copenhagen.
H K
HK
Andersen
N E
NE
Fiehn
T
T
Larsen
D003754:Dental High-Speed Equipment / Q000382:microbiology*; D004866:Equipment Contamination / Q000517:prevention & control; D001411:Geobacillus stearothermophilus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D019552:Infection Control, Dental / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D012463:Saliva / Q000382:microbiology; D013171:Spores, Bacterial / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013227:Steam; D013242:Sterilization / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D013291:Streptococcus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014618:Vacuum
D013227:Steam