Abstract :
Clean hands are hands and as a part of dental clinic infection control measure hand washing by a dental health professional before having contact with a patient’s oral cavity becomes a fundamental duty. Most detergents claim a 99.99% efficacy in killing bacteria however, there is paucity in literature if there will be a microbial growth “in use” detergents. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate bar soap and liquid soap from liquid soap from dental clinics for microbial contamination while it was in use.The study period was 2- month, dentists and dental assistants were the participants of the study. A total of 25 handwashing place samples from 12 different dental clinics were collected. All the test tube samples of bar soap and liquid soap were all transferred to the microbiology laboratory for microbiological analysis.
Statistical analysis used: data was analyzed using a one- sample paired t-test and independent students t-test.
Results: 6 different microbial species were identified. The abundance of staphylococcus aureus was highest compared to other microorganisms in both soaps. Further, the mean number of microorganisms was found similar (P > 0.05) in liquid soap.
Conclusions: the microbial load of a mixed flora of Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria, aerobes, and fungi were found in both the in-use bar soap and liquid soap. Thus, the results indicate that the bar soap ‘in-use’ condition harbors a greater number of microorganisms as compared to that of liquid soap.
Keyword :
Bar soap, Dentist, Handwashing, Liquid soap, Microbial load, Soap contamination