METHODS: Over a period of 14 months, 63 fomites were tested from two different pediatric dental offices. Forty-nine fomites from the MCG pediatric dental clinic and fourteen fomites from a private practice pediatric dental office were evaluated. The toys were tested initially as found in the offices, then disinfected with 10% sodium hypochlorite and retested. Finally the toys were replaced into the offices for 7 days of child contact and retested once again. Bacterial and fungal colonies were quantified on blood and nutrient agar plates.
RESULTS: The initial swabbed samples resulted in the most numerous bacterial and fungal colonies in both offices. There was a significant decrease (97.2%) in the number of colonies after disinfection of the toys and in some cases, no colonies were noted. After retesting, there was a return of bacterial and fungal colonies (69.4 % of baseline); however, there were not as many as observed initially. Overall, toys tested from the MCG clinic yielded more microbial colonies than those from the private practice dental office. In all cases, soft toys yielded more colonies than hard toys, especially fungal colonies. There were some α- and β-hemolytic colonies noted, primarily from soft toys.
CONCLUSIONS: These results support our hypothesis that soft toys serve a more significant role as fomites than hard toys, and disinfection of the toys is effective in decreasing microbial load.