Recent Articles on Different Disinfectants

Thanks for your question. This is a very common misconception. Here is a link to an article I wrote on "The Surface Disinfectant Challenge" published in ADHA's Access magazine in the January 2010 issue. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+surface+disinfectant+challenge.-a0218450588     The article really gives a good breakdown of the various types of disinfectants that are acceptable for use in the dental operatory and helps make sense of the CDC Guidelines regarding disinfectants.   Here is a link to the CDC Guidelines. Pages 26-27 are the ones that address your question specifically. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/rr/rr5217.pdf     To answer your question...operatory surfaces (called clinical contact surfaces) that have the potential for blood splash/spatter must be first cleaned of bio-burden, then disinfected with an intermediate level disinfectant. So a spray, wipe, spray technique is employed (the first spray & wipe is the cleaning step, the second spray is the disinfecting step. It is left to dry for the product's "contact time" anywhere from 1-10 minutes---check the label). Or if you are using disinfecting pop-up wipes, then a wipe, discard, wipe technique is used (wipe first to clean, then discard and use a new wipe for disinfecting, then left to dry for the contact time).   An intermediate level disinfectant carries a "Mycobacterium Tuberculocidal" kill claim (because it is a hearty test organism), as well as a Hepatitis B and HIV kill claim. It might be labeled "hospital disinfectant." But be careful....other "low level" disinfectants carry the hospital kill claim also, but do not carry the M-TB kill claim. That's the difference. You will always want to use a product with a M-TB kill claim. The M-TB kill claim is what differentiates intermediate from low level disinfectants. You might wonder when would you use a low level? These are generally used in hospital rooms or other areas that do not have potential for blood splash/splatter.    You will need to read the Lysol label to see it's kill claims. You can use it as a surface disinfectant on clinical contact surfaces IF it has an HIV/Hep B, and M-TB kill claim. I hope that helps! Good luck.