Degradación de la fuerza de cadenas elastoméricas después de ser sometidas a procesos de esterilización por autoclave y desinfección química

Abstract

The objective of this study was to verify the degradation of the forces of elastomeric chains subjected to autoclave sterilization and chemical disinfection processes. A total of 51 samples were used, which were divided into three experimental groups (n = 17), according to the method used is group 1 control group; Group 2 was subjected to autoclave sterilization and group 3 was immersed in 2% chlorhexidine, subsequently they were subjected to a tensile strength test with a universal testing machine, where the maximum resistance and maximum elongation were determined. Normality tests were carried out with the Shapiro-Wilk test, the Kruskal-Wallis test to establish differences between the strength and maximum elongation between the three groups, to establish comparisons between groups the Mann-Whitney U test was used with a level of significance. p<0.05, statistically significant differences were observed only in the maximum force between the control group and the disinfection group (p<0.05), with the control group being the one that presented the least loss of force, followed by the sterilization group and finally the disinfection group, while in the maximum elongation they presented similar values between the three study groups, so it is concluded that the sterilization process does not influence the loss of strength, so it is recommended to use supplies that are sterile when used on patients to apply the various orthodontic mechanics