Cleaning, Disinfecting, and Sterilization of Endodontic Hand Files ... Is It a Must Sequence?

Abstract

This in Vitro study have been done to evaluate the procedures necessary to sterilize an endodontic file and the time necessary to accomplish the procedure. Nine groups of five files were studied using Bacillus stearothermophilus as the test organism. Two main sterilization procedures were evaluated “steam autoclave, and hot air oven” and subjecting some groups to ultrasonic cleaning and gluteraldelyde disinfecting before sterilization. Complete sterilization was obtained by both techniques “steam autoclave, and hot air oven” regardless of the cleaning and disinfecting procedures undergone before sterilization procedures. The time consumed for complete sterilization of the files by steam autoclave was only 15 minutes if compared with hot air oven which was 1 hour.