“Effectiveness of Surface Treatment with spray disinfectants on Impression Materials”

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of 0.5 % Sodium hypochlorite and 2% Glutaraldehyde spray disinfectants on impression compound and irreversible hydrocolloid impressions. Material and Methods: Twenty edentulous patients (age group of 45-65 years) were randomly selected for the present study. Maxillary and mandibular impressions of 10 patients were made in compound and remaining 10 patients in alginate. All 40 impressions were swabbed and incubated on nutrient agar culture media. Both alginate and compound impressions were divided into two groups of 10 each . 50% of total impressions of alginate and compound were disinfected with 0.5% NaOCl and were designated as group –I and remaining 50% impressions of both were disinfected with 2% Glutaraldehyde and were designated as group –II respectively. Post 10 minutes, the impressions were reswabbed and incubated on nutrient agar culture media for 24-48 hours and microbial colony count was carried out. Results: Numerous gram positive and gram negative bacteria , were found to be present on compound and irreversible hydrocolloid impressions obtained from edentulous patients. Both the disinfectants, 0.5 % Sodium hypochlorite and 2% glutaraldehyde were statistically equally effective against gram positive and gram negative organisms. However, sodium hypochlorite 0.5% is marginally more effective than 2% glutaraldehyde on irreversible hydrocolloid. Conclusions: Within the limitations of this study, it can be concluded that 2% Glutaraldehyde and 0.5% Sodium hypochlorite are highly effective against gram positive and gram negative organisms and eliminate around 90100% bacteria. So, oral impressions can be satisfactorily disinfected using either 0.5 % Sodium hypochlorite or 2% Glutaraldehyde. It is recommended that disinfection of impressions should be practiced regularly to prevent cross infection.