A Review of Pre-Sterilisation Cleaning Methods

Decontamination of medical devices is a combination of processes, including cleaning, disinfecting, sterilisation, storage and transportation used to make a re-useable medical device safe for further use. The effective decontamination of these types of medical devices is essential in reducing the risk of transmission of infectious agents.

Sterilisation is an essential step in the reprocessing of reusable dental instruments that have become contaminated, or are potentially contaminated, with saliva, blood or other biological fluids; this includes dental handpieces. The aim of sterilisation is to break the chain of potential cross-infection between patients by killing microorganisms, including spores. However, prion proteins are not fully deactivated by the sterilisation process. Therefore, effective instrument cleaning is particularly important to physically remove contamination, including prion proteins, prior to sterilisation.