Comparative Evaluation of the Antimicrobial Efficacy of Three Immersion Chemical Disinfectants on Clinically Derived Poly(Vinyl Siloxane) Impressions

PURPOSE:To comparatively evaluate the antimicrobial efficacy of freshly prepared electrolyzed oxidizing water (EOW) with that of 2.4% glutaraldehyde (GA) and 1% sodium hypochlorite (SH) on clinically derived poly vinyl siloxane (PVS) impressions. MATERIALS AND METHODS:Four clinically derived PVS impressions each were obtained from 10 subjects. One impression from each subject was randomly kept as control (group I), without disinfection. The remaining three impressions were randomly disinfected by immersion in either 2.4% GA (group II), 1% SH (group III), or freshly prepared EOW (group IV). The samples were subjected to microbial culture individually on brain heart infusion (BHI) agar medium. The organisms isolated were confirmed by visual examination and gram staining. Mean colony forming units (CFU) were counted, log10 reduction obtained and compared. Data were statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA, followed by multiple comparisons using Tukey-HSD post hoc tests (p < 0.05). RESULTS:Streptococci, Staphylococci, Pseudomonas, Candida, Proteus, Klebsiella, and E. coli were isolated from all impressions including the controls, except those disinfected by EOW. All three disinfectants showed significant reduction in CFU and log10 reduction values as compared to the controls. EOW showed significantly higher reduction in log10 values compared to GA and SH, whereas GA and SH showed similar reductions. EOW, GA, and SH showed kill rates of 100%, 99.60%, and 99.82%, respectively. CONCLUSION:EOW showed significant antimicrobial efficacy as evidenced by reduction in log10 values when used as an immersion disinfectant for PVS impressions when compared with the results obtained using GA and SH. These results need further investigation. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS:EOW shows high antimicrobial efficacy when used as an immersion disinfectant as compared to GA and SH for clinically derived PVS impressions.