Chairside decontamination of endodontic files.
Chairside decontamination. of files and reamers is attempted during root canal treatment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate some techniques for reducing the number of microorganisms of artificially contaminated endodontic files. Endodontic files were artificially contaminated with about 10,000 colony-forming units of either B. subtilis spores or S. mitis. The files containing the bacteria were then subjected to various decontamination procedures. Although sterilization was not achieved with any procedure, the bead sterilizer was found to be the most effective decontamination method tested. All gauze wipings showed reductions greater than 90 per cent. It was concluded that wiping with 2 by 2 inch gauze is a highly efficient and practical method of chairside decontamination