What is the difference between Cleaning, Sanitizing, and Disinfecting?

Feb 19th 2020

  • Cleaning removes visible dirt or other contaminants but does not kill any microorganisms that may be responsible for the spread of disease in humans.
  • Sanitizing kills 99.9% of staphylococcus aureus and klebsiella pneumoniae or enterobacter aerogenes only, within 5 minutes. This level of pathogen removal is not acceptable for healthcare institutions or medical/dental offices.
  • Low-level disinfection is the process of killing from 99.9% to 99.999% of specific vegetative bacteria, fungi, and enveloped (lipophilic)viruses, which are listed on a product label. Low-level disinfection does not kill M. bovis (surrogate), the encapsulated mycobacteria responsible for the spread of tuberculosis, or non-enveloped (hydrophilic) viruses, or bacterial spores. This level of pathogen removal is not acceptable for healthcare institutions or medical/dental offices.
  • Intermediate-level disinfection is the process of killing from 99.9% to 99.999% of specific vegetative bacteria, M. bovis, fungi, enveloped (lipophilic) viruses, and non-enveloped (hydrophilic) viruses, which are listed on a product label. Intermediate-level disinfection does not kill bacterial spores. Intermediate-level disinfectants are most commonly found in healthcare institutions and medical/dental offices, in the form of either liquid spray products or pre-saturated wipes, or both. Optimus Dental Supply offers several surface disinfectant wipes and surface disinfectant solutions that are intermediate-level disinfectants.
  • High-level disinfection is the process of killing all the pathogens that are killed by intermediate-level disinfectants, as well as killing bacterial spores (i.e. Clostridium difficile). High-level disinfectants are liquid chemical products generally used to reprocess semi-critical and critical medical instruments, as an alternative to sterilization by means of autoclave, ethylene oxide gas or other traditional means of sterilization.