Abstract
Introduction
Blood is a biological material with high potential of infectious transmission in dental environments, including herpes simplex, hepatitis and AIDS.
Aim
To investigate the efficacy of luminol in detecting blood in endodontic files before and after the sterilization process.
Material and method
Luminol was used to investigate the presence or absence of traces of blood tissue in 50 endodontic files, visible to naked eye or not, after performing endodontic treatment and after the cleaning/sterilization process. The results obtained were tabulated and statistically analyzed by using the Friedman’s test at a significance level of 5% (p<0.05).
Result
By naked eye, it was found that 31/50 files showed no trace of blood, 8/50 showed a slight presence of blood and 11/50 showed a considerable presence of blood after endodontic treatment. After the use of luminol, however, 16/50 endodontic files showed no trace of blood, 19/50 showed a slight presence of blood and 15/50 showed a considerable presence of blood. After the cleaning and sterilization process, no blood was detected in the files.
Conclusion
It was concluded that the luminol solution is effective in detecting blood tissue in endodontic files as well as in validating the cleaning/sterilization process.
Descriptors:
Endodontic file; endodontic therapy; endodontics; infection control
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