Introduction:

all dental treatments should strictly follow aseptic protocols in order to reduce failure, especially when performing endodontic procedures. Despite being a key recommendation in this type of interventions, this statement is generally ignored, as students and clinicians tend to neglect the sterilization of posts prior to their use. To raise awareness on this practice, the objective of this study was to demonstrate the presence of microorganisms that cause failure, such as Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans, in non-sterile cores.

Methods:

during the first half of 2016, fabricated cast cores were collected in the dental clinics of Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia at Villavicencio. The cores were immersed in saline solution making dilutions to up to 10-4, and finally inserted in duplicate into differential mediums for the microorganisms under study. The candidate colonies were then quantified and selected for the microorganisms under study, performing identification and confirmation in a certified clinical laboratory.

Results:

the presence of E. faecalis was detected in one of the cores (3.2%) used in the clinic, quantified in 5x104 CFU/ml. The presence of S. aureus or C. albicans was not identified, but other microorganisms were found, such as Candida parapsilopsis (35.5%), Candida tropicalis (6.5%), Kokuria kristinae (16.1%), Staphylococcus saprophyticus (12.9%) and Stenotrophomona maltophilia (3.2%).

Conclusion:

out of the microorganisms analyzed in this study, only E. faecalis was identified. However, other microorganisms associated with endodontic failure or other type of complications were identified.

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