Evaluation of surface contamination of bacteria in various dental clinics with special reference to obligate and facultative anaerobic spore bearing bacilli

The occupational health and safety is an important prerequisite in dental clinic setup for well being of both the doctor and patient. Both the patient and dentist are always at the risk of infections.

There is no proper literature on the survey of bacterial spores, especially of Clostridium species in dental clinics. Hence an attempt has been made in the present pilot study to evaluate the surface contamination with special reference to bacterial spores.

Various dental clinics from Chennai city, India were selected for the present study. Samples were collected from two clinics each from endodontic, prosthodontic, orthodontic, and periodontic. In each clinic important places were selected for sampling. The samples were collected in the form of swabs. The swabs thus obtained were inoculated into Robertson Cooked Meat Medium and was incubated in anaerobic condition at 37°C for 7 days. Each day the tubes were examined for turbidity and colour change and were noted. At the end of 7^th day the smear was prepared from each tube and gram staining was performed. The gram stained slides were examined microscopically for the presence of spore bearing bacilli especially with special reference to terminal spore bearing bacilli.

From the present study it is clear that the dental clinics invariably posses a lot of aerobic and anaerobic spores irrespective of stringent disinfection procedures. Hence it is mandatory for the dental clinics to undergo periodical microbiological surveillance and to take proper steps in the control of bacterial spores.