Paraformaldehyde tablet in dental practice: still being used?

Abstract

The paraformaldehyde tablet is a sterilizing agent of dental-medical-hospital heat labile items that has been questioned because of its high carcinogenic power and also because of the difficulty to maintain the parameters required for its use. This study aimed at the identification and the characterization of the paraformaldehyde use in dental practice. The study occurred in Goiânia during the period from July 2005 to April 2006. To collect the data it was used a questionnaire, previously evaluated, applied to the people responsible for the operational processing of articles at dentistry offices. Two hundred and four professionals participated in this study and seventeen (8, 3%) of them said they have been working with paraformaldehyde tablets. Although these professionals had at their reach at least one physical sterilization method, the paraformaldehyde were been used to critical and semi critical items processing, among them the heat stable or disposable devices. Some professionals indicated the use of paraformaldehyde tablet to maintenance and/or sterilization, but its use in this processing became prohibited by Ministry of Health of the Brazil in 2008.

Descriptors: Dentistry; Infection control; Sterilization; Formaldehyde.