Antimicrobial Efficacy of Immersion 0.5% Sodium Hypochlorite And 2% Glutaraldehyde Disinfectants on Alginate Impressions

Dental impressions often carry microorganisms that may cause cross infection from patients to dental staff. The control of cross infection is an imperative issue when dealing with dental impression materials in Dentistry and the lack of procedures for its control is currently a real problem. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial effectiveness of 0,5% sodium hypochlorite and 2% glutaraldehyde immersion of alginate.Thirty edentulous patients were selected for the present study. Maxillary ridge impressions were taken out in 30 patients with alginate and was randomly divided into two groups containing 15 impressions each group, each impression was swabbed and incubated on nutrient agar culture media. This constituted the control group. Group A impressions were immersed in 0.5% sodium hypochlorite and group B impressions were immersed in 2%glutaraldehyde. All impressions received the similar disinfectant treatment. After 10 minutes the impressions were reswabbed and incubated for 24 hours and microbial colony count was carried out. It was observed that 2% glutaraldehydeis more efficient in reducing the number of bacterial colony count compared to 0.5% sodium hypochlorite.2% glutaraldehyde eliminated 46.74% of bacteria colony count while 0.5% sodium hypochlorite eliminated 43.33% of bacteria colony count. Dental impression materials can act as vectors transmitting a significant amount of microorganisms. It was concluded that 0.5% sodium hypochlorite and 2% glutaraldehyde was stistically equally effective in reducing the number of bacterial colony count. 2% glutaraldehyde was found to be marginally more effective than 0.5% sodium hypochlorite on alginate impressions.