E3 Journal of Medical Research

E3 Journal of Medical Research Vol. 2 (2) pp. 0123-0127, May 2013; © E3 Journals; ISSN 2276-9900

Microbiological study pumice used in dental laboratories

Mohammad Zibaei²^*, Farzaneh Firoozeh¹, Abolfazl Zendedel³, Hushang Rashidipour⁴, Aziz Kamran⁵
¹Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, I.R. Iran
²Department of Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Iran
³Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Iran
⁴Department of Endodontics, Dental School, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Iran
⁵Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
^*Corresponding Author E-mail: zibaeim@sums.ac.ir
Accepted 30 March 2013

Abstract

Dental appliances as sending and receiving prosthesis from laboratories are potential sources of cross contamination for technicians, dentists, patients and can transmit different infectious agents as well. This study was conducted to determine the types of the microorganisms in used dental laboratory pumice powder and pumice slurry in order to evaluate necessary disinfection control procedure in the dental settings. Twenty four active dental laboratories of Khorram Abad entered our study. Samples were randomly collected from prosthesis polishing containers in sterilized condition and were immediately sent to Microbiology laboratory. Specimens were cultured on selective bacterial and fungal media in order to determine of the microorganisms. Both the oral and non oral bacteria were recovered from pumice samples as follows: Staphylococcus aureus (15.4%), Streptococcus viridance (10.8%), Bacillus cereus (18.7%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (12.8%), Diphtheriods (7.3%), Enterobacter cloaceae (4.3%), Escherichia coli (13.1%), Klebsiella pneumonia (5.4%), and Acinetobacter spp. (12.2%). The isolated fungi included Candida albicans (36.7%), other yeasts (17.3%), Fusarium spp. (13.8%), Aspergilus spp. (22.4%) and Penicillium spp. (9.8%). This study showed that polishing pumices in the form of powder or slurry were contaminated with different oral and non oral bacteria and also fungi. Therefore, the chance of cross-contamination still severely exists, and measures should be conducted to prevent the contamination in the predispose people such as technicians, dentists and patients.

Keywords: Contamination; Dental laboratory; Pumice

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