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COMPARISON OF CLEANING PERFORMANCE OF A THERMAL DISINFECTOR AND AN ULTRASONIC CLEANING DEVICE
By Gayle Macdonald, RDH, PhD
Director of Safety and Infection Control, University of Southern California, School of Dentistry
INTRODUCTION
It is well documented that contamination on instruments may insulate bloodborne pathogens from the direct treatment effects of heat or chemical sterilization. Therefore, it is essential that instruments be thoroughly cleaned before they are subjected to sterilization…This research was conducted to determine the relative cleaning ability of a thermal disinfector (Miele Dental Disinfector Model G 7781) and an ultrasonic cleaner (Health Sonics Ultrasonic Model T13.7C)…
RESULTS
Visual inspection of the instruments run through the thermal disinfector revealed no blood except on a few areas underneath the restraining bar of the resin cassettes. None of the instruments run through the thermal disinfector in the metal mesh cassettes showed any residual blood when tested with the calorimetric test strip, nor did any of the hollow evacuator tips…
The 160 instruments run through the ultrasonic cleaner were found to have more residual blood than the same number run through the thermal disinfector…
DISCUSSION
The amount of blood placed on the instruments prior to processing is undoubtedly much more than would normally be expected on instruments used in dental procedures…
CONCLUSION
In this study, the thermal disinfector was more effective than the ultrasonic in removing blood from instruments…
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