Evaluation of central supply units in public dental medicine colleges in Brazil.

A guarantee of quality of all steps involved in processing dental materials is essential to achieve security. A descriptive study was made of how Public Dental Medicine Colleges in Brazil process critical materials and determine the patterns of physical, chemical and biological control in their use of hot air ovens and autoclaves to sterilize these materials. The data were obtained with a questionnaire, sent by mail and analyzed with the software EPI-INFO 6.04. Among the 40 Brazilian public Dental Medicine Colleges, only 16 returned the questionnaire. In eight of these, the individuals responsible for the materials and sterilization center had a college degree in a human health field. In 14 institutions, the students were responsible for the cleaning of the instruments, but in six of these they did so outside of the materials and sterilization center. Both the autoclave and the dry heat oven were the method of choice in 13 of the 16 schools. The sterilization routine was routinely monitored by 11 of the institutions. Chemical control through the tape test in the autoclave was used by 13 of the schools, three institutions reported preventive maintenance, and biological indicators were used by seven of the 16 schools. Autoclaves are widely used because of the degree of biological security that this method offers, however physical, chemical and biological controls have not been routinely implemented by most of the institutions.