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

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]