Reliability of Glass Bead Sterilization for Tried-in Orthodontic Bands

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of two methods of sterilization for the decontamination of tried-in orthodontic bands after initial cleaning procedures. Materials and methods: A total of 68 molar bands were tried-in mouth of 17 patients. After try-in, 60 bands were cleaned in ultrasonic cleaning bath and then were equally divided into two groups (n = 30). Bands from group 1 were autoclaved in benchtop autoclave. Bands from group 2 were sterilized in glass bead sterilizer. After sterilization, the bands from both the groups were incubated in 50 ml brain heart infusion (BHI) broth. Eight remaining bands were neither cleaned nor sterilized. They served as positive control and were directly incubated in BHI broth. One bottle of BHI broth which did not contain any orthodontic band, served as negative control was incubated. Incubation of BHI broth for all the groups was done at 37°C for 5 days. After 5 days of incubation, BHI broth samples from all the groups were taken and incubated in blood agar culture medium. Results: All the groups except the positive control group did not show any turbidity in the BHI broth and growth in blood agar culture media. The broth containing positive control group had increase turbidity after 5 days and growth of gram-positive cocci in blood agar culture media. Conclusion: Glass bead sterilization is equally effective as benchtop autoclave for sterilization of orthodontic bands.