Effect of steam sterilization inside the turbine chambers of dental turbines

Objective. It has been demonstrated that contamination of the insides of hi gh-speed dental turbines occurs and that bacteria as well as viruses may re main infectious when expelled from such turbines during subsequent use. Con sequently, it has been widely recommended that a high-speed turbine be ster ilized after each patient. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ef fect of steam autoclaving on a high-speed dental turbine with a contaminate d turbine chamber. Study design. Streptococcus salivarius and endospores of Bacillus stearothe rmophilus were used as test organisms to determine the effectiveness of 4 d ifferent small non-vacuum autoclaves and one vacuum autoclave. Results. The study demonstrated different efficiencies among the small non- vacuum autoclaves, the best showing close to a 6 log reduction of the test organisms inside the turbine chamber. When cleaning and lubrication of the high-speed dental turbine was carried out before autoclaving, this level of reduction was observed for all the examined non-vacuum autoclaves. Conclusions. It is concluded that cleaning before sterilization is essentia l for safe use of high-speed dental turbines and that small non-vacuum auto claves should be carefully evaluated before being used for the reprocessing of hollow instruments such as high-speed turbines.