Knowledge and practices about dental impression disinfection in a teaching dental college of Karachi, Pakistan

Background: Blood or saliva is considered as a direct carrier of infection, whereas contaminated equipment's, surfaces and airway carry infection indirectly, and the transmission is mainly due to lack of hygiene standards, disinfection and sterilization procedures. This study was conducted to assess the knowledge and practices of dental impression disinfection among the graduates and undergraduates of Baqai dental college, Karachi. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among the graduates and undergraduates of Baqai dental college, Karachi. The two-page anonymous questionnaire contained questions on personal information such as age, sex and level of education followed by multiple-choice questions to evaluate the knowledge and practice regarding disinfection of dental impressions sent to the laboratory. Data was recorded and analyzed in SPSS 20. Results: A greater number of the study participants practice disinfecting the impressions through liquid disinfectant spray (34.8%, n = 55) and sodium hypochlorite (34.2%, n=54) while rest of them disinfect impression through washing with soap and tap water (31%, n = 49). Half of the participants picked sodium hypochlorite as the most commonly used (47.5%, n = 75) chemical for disinfection of laboratory work surfaces. Conclusion: Lack of information about cross contamination protocol and its implementation results in the transfer of the blood-borne and saliva borne diseases to the technicians from patients which could have been easily be avoided by following the proper disinfectant protocol.