Evaluation of the Efficacy of Different Cleaning Methods for Orthodontic Thermoplastic Retainers in terms of Bacterial Colonization

Özet

Objective: This study investigated the antimicrobial efficacy of three different cleaning methods on Streptococcus mutans (SM) andLactobacillus (LB) bacteria colonization in vivo. The three different cleaning methods were applied by volunteers on clear vacuumformed retainers (VFRs).Methods: In this prospective, cross-over study, a total of 21 volunteers were included. All VFRs used by the volunteers were cleanedusing three different cleaning methods in a sequence. These methods were peroxide-based cleanser tablets (PBCTs) plus brushing,control (only brushing), and vinegar plus brushing, respectively. The obtained salivary, VFR material, and periodontal data were statistically compared by factorial design repeated measures analysis of variance.Results: The SM and LB bacteria counts on VFRs after using both PBCTs and vinegar were statistically similar (p>0.05), but bacteriacounts were statistically lower than the control method (p 0.05). Similarly, there wereno significant differences between periodontal data obtained from plaque and bleeding indices at all study times. The periodontalpocket depth gradually decreased in the successively performed cleaning applications (p<0.05).Conclusion: The application of PBCTs and vinegar to VFRs at sequential time intervals resulted in similar bacteria counts. The higherLB counts and similarly higher SM counts on the VFR samples indicate that mechanical cleaning only (control method) is not adequateto obtain hygiene. Salivary flora was not correlated with bacteria counts of VFRs.