Infection control of dental implant hand drivers using ethanol solution

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#The purpose of this study was to study the effects of the utilization of ethanol solution in infection control of dental implant hand drivers, a common practice in dental prosthodontic clinics. @*Materials and Methods@#Infection control methods were divided into two groups. One swabbed with 83% ethanol gauze and the other immersed in 83% ethanol solution for 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180 and 300 second intervals after inoculation of the dental implant hand drivers with Staphylococcus aureus. After measuring the number of colony forming units and analyzing the optical density, the effects of infection control in the experimental group were compared with the positive control group without infection control after inoculation with bacteria and the negative control group without inoculation with bacteria after sterilization. @*Results@#The number of colony forming units and optical density analysis showed a statistically significant difference compared to the positive control. On the other hand, there was no statistically significant difference between the negative control and the group immersed in the 83% ethanol solution for more than 150 seconds. @*Conclusion@#It is recommended to use the ethanol solution as a pre-cleaning process before sterilization, since the intermediatelevel disinfection method using ethanol solution alone for the infection control of the dental implant hand driver cannot clinically secure the sterility.