Chhabra Mudrika, Greenwell Ann L
Private practice, Tallahassee, Fla., USA;, Email:
Program director, University of Louisville, Louisville, Ky., USA.
Pediatr Dent. 2018 May 15;40(3):220-223.
The fracture of rubber dam clamps after repeated clinical uses can result in ingestion/aspiration of the fragments. This pilot study was aimed at examining whether the tensile strength of a rubber dam clamp changes significantly following the stresses of repeated clinical use and steam sterilizations.
One-hundred new stainless-steel rubber dam clamps were subjected to repeated steam sterilization and placement on a wooden dowel periodically, simulating clinical use. Two clamps were randomly selected for removal after every 50 sterilization cycles. Three-hundred such cycles were completed. Using a standard bench top universal tensile testing system (MTI-2K) a tensile force was applied to break the new clamps and the clamps that were stretched and autoclaved. The maximum force was recorded, and data analyzed using simple mean. The mean tensile load values were plotted on a graph against the number of sterilization cycles to analyze trends in the data.
The rubber dam clamps demonstrated a higher tensile strength and fracture resistance after three-hundred cycles of use and sterilization.
Repeated use and steam sterilization up to three-hundred cycles did not adversely affect the tensile strength of the rubber dam clamps. The clamps, in fact, demonstrated a higher tensile strength.
橡胶障夹在临床反复使用后发生断裂，可能导致碎片被误食/误吸。本初步研究旨在检验橡胶障夹在经受反复临床使用及蒸汽灭菌的应力作用后，其拉伸强度是否会发生显著变化。
一百个新的不锈钢橡胶障夹接受反复蒸汽灭菌，并定期放置在木销上，模拟临床使用。每50个灭菌周期后随机选取两个夹子取出。共完成300个这样的周期。使用标准台式通用拉伸测试系统（MTI - 2K）对新夹子以及经过拉伸和高压灭菌的夹子施加拉伸力直至其断裂。记录最大力，并使用简单均值分析数据。将平均拉伸载荷值与灭菌周期数绘制在图表上，以分析数据趋势。
经过300个使用和灭菌周期后，橡胶障夹表现出更高的拉伸强度和抗断裂性。
反复使用及蒸汽灭菌达300个周期，对橡胶障夹的拉伸强度没有不利影响。事实上，夹子表现出了更高的拉伸强度。
