ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Minerva Dental and Oral Science 2021 February;70(1)15-20

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

In-vitro study on the effectiveness of microwave sterilization in odontostomatology

Cesare D’AMICO ¹, Luca FIORILLO ¹ ✉, Giovanni SURACE ², Gabriele CERVINO ¹, Marco CICCIÙ ¹

¹ Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences, Morphological and Functional Images, G. Martino University Hospital, University of Messina, Messina, Italy; ² Francesco Siracusa Rizzi S.r.l. Clinical Analysis Laboratory, Reggio Calabria, Italy

BACKGROUND: Dental practice is subjected to biologic risk on a daily basis, a risk that could affect both operators and patients. The aim of this study was to observe that the use of protective devices and medical devices allows to limit and eliminate this risk, especially in the case of cross infections.
METHODS: The methods of disinfection of surfaces and instruments are different and could include both physical and chemical methods. In this in-vitro study the effectiveness of sterilization of microwave methods was assessed. In this study microwave sterilization with a 1800W protocol for 5 minutes has been performed.
RESULTS: Once the bacterial contamination of some dental instruments was carried out, and left the latter in culture medium, the disinfection phase was carried out, by inserting the instruments in a microwave chamber. These new sterilization protocols allow to obtain surfaces or instruments sterilization in a short time.
CONCLUSIONS: Even though it cannot be used with all materials, the use of this method has excellent properties for the sterilization of dental medical instruments, even if with lower performance than the conventional autoclave.

KEY WORDS: Disinfection; Sterilization; Antisepsis; Public Health; Microbiota; General practice, dental