Disinfecting Clarinet
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The term disinfection means a reduction in the load of disease causing pathogenic organisms, to decrease the risk of contacting diseases. Disinfectants are chemical substances that are capable of killing pathogens so that the item is rendered safe and harmless.
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Different microorganisms have different capacities of causing infection (or different levels of infectivity). All the microorganisms do not respond in the same manner to a particular disinfectant. Moreover, different microorganisms also exhibit varying degree of resistance to chemical disinfectants.
In simpler terms, the disinfectant either kills the microbes or inhibits the growth of existing germs by simply rendering the substrate unfavorable for the growth of the microbes. The extant to which the disinfection has been effective, depends on the extent to which the microbes are destroyed. The effectiveness of a disinfectant depends on several factors such as its properties, concentration, temperature and length of exposure (time provided for the disinfectant to carry out its disinfecting action).
There are several routes of infection. The microbes can enter the body either through the respiratory route (through the air that we breathe), or through the alimentary route (through the food or water we consume), cutaneous route (through the skin), or even through blood. This is the reason why many wind players avoid using the reed instruments of their colleagues without first thorough cleaning and disinfecting the instrument. It is therefore, advisable to disinfect the mouthpiece thoroughly before and after every use. Infections can be caused either when a reed or a mouthpiece is left unclean or some other unsuspecting individual happens to use it.
Most wind players use hydrogen peroxide, a mild disinfecting agent to clean their instrument’s mouthpiece, reed and horn areas. One cannot use some very strong chemical agent in the mouth piece area to disinfect it, because it can be toxic and ultimately affect the person’s health. Some disinfectant agents leave behind a very unpleasant and nasty after taste on the reed and the mouthpiece inspite of rinsing the instrument with clean water several times.
One can try soaking the reed and mouth piece for 15 minute in pharmacy grade hydrogen peroxide. This will kill almost 99 percent of the disease causing pathogenic organisms. Another option is to use Quaternary ammonium products, which have been proved to kill almost 70 to 85 percent of the disease causing pathogenic organisms. This treatment is enough to disinfect our instruments. Do not forget to rinse the instrument thoroughly in clean water until all traces of the disinfectant is washed away.
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