Various Disinfecting Methods of Orthodontic Pliers in Daily Clinical Practice: A comparative Study

Abstract

Introduction: Orthodontic pliers are essential armamentarium in every orthodontic office and should be used

once for one patient, then autoclaved before next use. Clinical orthodontics with higher volume of patients,

requires a quick chair side disinfection method for pliers, also in rural centres with minimum infrastructure

it is a challenge to maintain sterilisation protocols. Various disinfecting agents include alcohols , quaternary

ammonium salts, formaldehyde, chloramine, sodium hypochlorite, spirit, glutaraldehyde etc. are available.

Out of these we compared the commonly available disinfectants including ethyl alcohol, 5% glutaraldehyde,

and 6% sodium hypochlorite to assess their disinfection efficacy after clinical use.

Materials and method: 20 orthodontic pliers were inoculated with Coagulase negative streptococci. The

pliers were divided in 4 groups with 5 pliers in each group. Each group was subjected to different disinfectant

solution with one group aiding as control. The disinfectants used were: spirit (group 1), 5% glutaraldehyde

(group 2), 2% sodium hypochlorite (group 3) and distilled water (control group).

Results: spirit and 5% glutaraldehyde have shown to be potent disinfectants.

Conclusions: Based on these results, we concluded that among the tested methods, disinfection of orthodontic

pliers with spirit and 5% glutaraldehyde are the efficient methods for chair-side disinfection.