Study on the Importance of Hygienic Hand Disinfection of Dental Practitioners and Students as an Infection Control Measure in Dental Practice

The hands of dental students and practitioners are a key epidemiological factor in the transmission of infections associated with dental care. Strict adherence to the established hand hygiene protocols, combined with regular training and monitoring the quality of the performed hygienic hand disinfection, is crucial for ensuring safe dental practice. Objectives: The aim of the study is to assess the quality of hand antisepsis performed with alcohol-containing preparation among dental students and practicing dentists. Methods: A prospective epidemiological and microbiological study was conducted on 225 people—149 students from the 4th, 5th and 6th year of training at the Faculty of Dental Medicine, Plovdiv, and 76 dentists. The skin antiseptic was applied according to the “six steps” method with alcohol-based antiseptics. The samples were taken with a dry sterile swab. Results: The comparison between students and practicing dental medical doctors shows that the latter have a higher relative share of samples with microbiological growth 12 (15.8%), including coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) above 105 CoNS, compared to students 6 (4.0%), (p = 0.004). Gram-negative microbiological isolates indicate a statistically significant gender dependence (p = 0.016)—15 in men (15.8%), compared to 7 in women (5.4%). Growth of fungi (yeasts and mols) is statistically significant depending on gender (p = 0.015) and is observed only in men. Conclusions: The presence of significant microbial counts of CoNS is an indicator of insufficiently effective hygienic hand disinfection. The recovery of Gram-negative enteric bacteria is unacceptable and suggests serious shortcomings in the hygienic disinfection of some of the samples studied. Students demonstrated superior hand antisepsis performance compared to practicing dentists.