Metal Mouth Message Board

There is absolutely nothing wrong, trust me. It's all psychological!

Next time you go to a resaurant, are you gonna freak out because the fork was in a hundred people's different mouths at one time?

The braces are sterilized, there are no germs on them!

We should all recycle and do what we can to save the environment and resources.

I think it'd be more disgusting to use a cup at a restaurant because those are not santized

Just to correct...dishes and all cooking utensils are sanitized in restaurants as part of the washing process. I used to be a restaurant manager.

Aren't they just dipped in sanitation liquid? They're certainly not exposed to UV at all, I wouldn't think, like the brackets would be, I'd think.

Yes, that is correct. They are still sanitized. Not as much as a surgical instrument, that's true. But your original statement said they weren't sanitized. Surgical instruments are "sterilized" just as, I would imagine, recycled brackets.

According my Medical Assistant daughter there are three steps (degrees)of killing microorganisms.

1. Sanitizing - like dishes, cooking and food preparation surfaces, etc.
2. Disinfecting - used in hospitals, etc.
3. Sterilizing - pretty much reserved for surgical instruments, dressings, saline, etc.

That said, to get this thread back on topic, though I don't think there would be any problem using recycled brackets, from a sterility standpoint, unless your ortho is giving you a price break for recycled brackets, I would ask for the new ones.

Yes, there is Sanitizing, disinfecting, and Sterilizing.

And Sanitizing is just the first step of washing off any visible organic material with an antimicrobial soap.

Disinfecting removes MOST stuff....but may leave a few resistant spores. It's the 2nd step.

Sterilizing is what an AUTOCLAVE does.... It's the 3rd step. it gets rid of everything... NOTHING can live at 15 pounds of pressure at 250 degrees F. That's usually how you sterilize any instruments that come into contact with tissue in a doc or dentist's office. Your dentist's tools are autoclaved. I wouldn't see a problem with autoclaving brackets or bands, so long as they are functional. (Not broken)

On one hand, I think recycling is a nice idea.

On the other, it seems rather odd to recycle a low-cost medical product such as this. Do they offer a discount? What is their motivation, environmentalism or cost-saving?

There are a lot of things I wouldn't mind a medical pracitioner reusing, but I think brackets stretches it a bit. Still, you never know.

I agree with Dr.J, if a person is spending over 3 grand for treatment the guy could at least use new brackets! I don't see a reason to do it, there not that big (meaning I can't believe they would worry about filling up the dump). If your not into dumping them in the ol'landfill just melt them down and make more! I agree with the other response, he should never have said and then you wouldn't know!