title: Cellular telephone as reservoir of bacterial contamination: myth or fact.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess bacterial contamination of cellular telephone of dental care personnel, and to determine factors contributing to their contamination.
  
  
  METHODS
  A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted, which included 300 people using a cellular telephone The study group (hundred in each group) comprised of Dental Health Care Personnel (DHCP), In-Hospital Personnel (IHP) and Out-Hospital Personnel (OHP) of a dental college cum hospital. Swab was wiped along the front and all sides of cellular handset and it was incubated in glucose broth. The swab was subplated onto growth media plates made with half Mac Conkey's agar and half blood agar and allowed to incubate for 48 hours at 37(o)C. Isolates were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The analysis of presence or absence of microorganisms in the DHCP, IHP and OHP group showed no pyogenic growth in 28%, 31% and 41% cases respectively, the distribution of which was not significant (p>.05). Among non potential pathogens, spore bearing gram positive bacilli were seen in 20 cases of DHCP group, 16 cases of IHP group and 17 cases of OHP group; the distribution of which was not significant (p>.05) Among potential pathogens, significant differences were observed in the distribution of growth of Enterobacter (p<.001), Pseudomonas species (p<.05), Acinetobacter bacteria (p<.05) and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria (p<.001) between the participants of different groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  RESULTs of this study showed that fomites such as cellular telephones can potentially act as "Trojan horses", thus causing Hospital-Acquired Infections (HAIs) in the dental setting.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health & Dentistry, Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Dental Sciences and Research , Amritsar, Punjab, India .
authors.forename: Satinder S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Walia
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Oral Pathology & Microbiology, Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Dental Sciences and Research , Amritsar, Punjab, India .
authors.forename: Adesh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Manchanda
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Oral Pathology & Microbiology, Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Dental Sciences and Research , Amritsar, Punjab, India.
authors.forename: Ramandeep S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Narang
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Public Health & Dentistry, Jaipur Dental College , Rajasthan, India.
authors.forename: Anup
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: N
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Oral Medicine & Radiology, Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Dental Sciences and Research , Amritsar, Punjab, India.
authors.forename: Balwinder
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Orthodontics, Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Dental Sciences and Research , Amritsar, Punjab, India.
authors.forename: Sukhdeep S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Kahlon
keywords: Dental Health Care Personnel (DHCP); Health Care Worker (HCW); Hospital acquired infection