title: Decontamination methods used for dental burs - a comparative study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Infection control and modes of sterilizations are the key factors to avoid cross transmission of infection in the field of dentistry. Transmission of disease or infection is noted with improper sterilization of reused instruments. Dental burs are the most important tool in any endodontic or conservative procedures of teeth involving tooth contouring, restorative filling procedures and endodontic procedures. Hence, the present study is undertaken to assess the efficacy of different methods of sterilization or decontamination which are routinely used in dental clinics.
  
  
  METHODS
  For the present study 96 round diamond burs were selected and divided into 6 groups. These burs were used for the access cavity preparation to get contamination and subjected for bacteriological culture. After getting base line date burs were subjected to manual scrubbing, hot air oven, glass bead sterilizer, ultrasonic cleaner and autoclave to get post decontamination data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study revealed that mean colony forming units/ml of Streptococcus mutans decreased maximum for autoclave with 80% reduction, for Lactobacilli 76% reduction and for Candida albicans maximum reduction seen for glass bead sterilizer with 74%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings of our study revealed that none of the methods used were found to be absolutely efficacious in the decontamination of dental burs. However, among the experimental groups used in the present study, autoclave was found to be the relatively best method.
authors.affiliation: Reader, Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, H.K.E.S's S.N.D.C , Gulbarga, India .
authors.forename: Sangameshwar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sajjanshetty
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, H.K.E.S's S.N.D.C , Gulbarga, India .
authors.forename: Deepa
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hugar
authors.affiliation: Reader, Department of Conservative and Endodontics, Bharatiya Vidyapeetha , Sangli, India .
authors.forename: Santosh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hugar
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Buddha Dental College , Patna, India .
authors.forename: Shashi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ranjan
authors.affiliation: Postraduate Student, Department of Oral And Maxillofacial Pathology, H.K.E.S's S.N.D.C , Gulbarga, India .
authors.forename: Megha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kadani
keywords: Autoclave; Candida albicans; Diamond burs; Glass bead sterilizer; Hot air oven; Lactobacilli; Streptococcus mutans; Ultrasonic cleaner