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EVALUATION OF A DENTAL THERMAL DISINFECTOR
By Kenneth W. Stoffers, DMD, MS
Clinical Assistant Professor
Cariology, Restorative Services and Endodontics
School of Dentistry, University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1078
Co-Investigators:
James L. VandenBosch, PhD, Eastern Michigan University
Teresa M. Mortaon, PhD, Eastern Michigan University
OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the effectiveness of the Miele G7781 Dental Disinfector for effectiveness in cleaning soiled dental instruments and in reducing the bacterial contamination on these instruments to levels which will allow for their safe handling.
SIGNIFICANCE
During the processing and packaging of soiled dental instruments, personnel are required by CDC guidelines to wear heavy gloves while handling the instruments. Not only is this clumsy and slows the process of sterilization and disinfection, but a puncture wound exposes the worker to unnecessary risk of infection with organisms from the patients. High level disinfection makes instruments clean enough to be handled with bare hands and to be used in non-invasive procedures. The quality of cleaning claimed by this manufacturer would qualify as high level disinfection. If substantiated, this would mean that instruments could be transported from the operatory directly to the disinfector in wire-mesh baskets, run through a cycle and then sharpened, lubricated, packaged and wrapped for terminal sterilization with bare hands. Not only would this be faster and easier, but it would eliminate the dangerous step of scrubbing the instruments by hand.
RESULTS
For all the instruments tested except one, there were no culturable organisms after the completion of the disinfection cycle.
DISCUSSION
…it appears that the DESIN-93ºC-10 minute cycle of the Miele Dental Disinfector gives at least an 8 log reduction of organisms on those instruments even when scratched and when the cycle was prematurely interrupted to increase the probability of survival. Similarly, no viable organisms were recoverable from the hemostats under the same conditions even though almost twice as many organisms adhered to the hemostats and the hinges provided a privileged and semi-protected site for the organism…From these results, we are confident that the Miele G7781 Dental Disinfector provides a greater than 8 log reduction of E. faecium when operated according to the manufacturers instructions.
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