Efficacy of a Commercially Available Herbal Formulation for the Disinfection of Elastomeric Heavy Body Impression Materials

Abstract

Introduction: Cross infection refers to the transfer of harmful microorganisms from one person to another. Dental impressions are considered semi-critical as it directly comes in contact with patient’s saliva and oral mucosa. Improper handling of these dental impressions can potentially have the risk of transmitting infections especially to the dentist. The role of herbal preparation in disinfecting the dental impressions is sparse in the literature. Aim: To evaluate and compare the disinfection ability of a commercially available herbal formulation (HiOra®) with chlorhexidine digluconate solution (0.2%) and 1% sodium hypochlorite on dental impressions made using condensation silicone. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Outpatient Department of Periodontology and Implantology at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, between June 2019 and November 2019. Sixty maxillary and mandibular dental impressions using condensation silicone material were obtained from 30 systemically healthy volunteers. The impressions were divided into three groups and were subjected to three antimicrobial agents for 10 minutes: 1% Sodium Hypochlorite (group I); 0.2% chlorhexidine digluconate (group II); HiOra® (group III), respectively. Following this, microbial culturing was performed to detect the presence of Streptococcal and Staphylococcus species in samples obtained both prior and after impression disinfection. One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was performed to assess the significance of the difference in microbial reduction between the groups. Results: Antimicrobial efficacy was similar against both Streptococcus spp., and Staphylococcus spp., for the three disinfectants tested. No statistically significant difference in the microbial colony count reduction between the three disinfectants tested was observed (Streptococcus spp, p-value=0.064, Staphylococcus spp., p-value=0.337). Conclusion: The herbal mouthwash was found to have an equivalent efficacy as chlorhexidine, sodium hypochlorite for disinfection of impressions made from condensation silicone.