Coronavirus pandemic has brought forward a very important aspect of disinfection to light, cleaning or disinfecting your smartphone when you return home after roaming outside. As a Dentist, it is a must to disinfect your smartphone every day after a shift at the clinic which exposes us to multiple patients and aerosols from the treatments which can contain millions of bacteria and viruses which we will in turn transfer it to our houses. So it makes it very important to sanitize or disinfect your smartphone surfaces every day to make sure it does not act as a carrier.
With most viruses, spores, and bacteria capable of surviving on surfaces like glass, plastic, metal for multiple hours it is important to disinfect your smartphone display, back and case properly when you visit outdoors. It comes under daily Sterilization protocol which we have to follow to keep safe from all the infected aerosols at the clinic.
How to Disinfect or Clean your Smartphone:
Items required for cleaning:
- Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol (70%),
- Disinfectant Wipes (70% Isopropyl Alcohol)
- Distilled Water
- Regular Water
- Microfibre or Soft cloth
- Cotton swabs
- Aftershave lotion (In case Isopropyl Alcohol is not available)
Steps to Sanitize Mobile Phone Display and Back:
Note: Make sure whether your smartphone is Water Resistant (IP67 rating) or not as you cannot use water on non-water resistant phones.
Step 1: Clean the Case of your smartphone first as it is the one protecting the back and sides of the phone. First, remove the case and clean it under running water after applying soap (liquid soap if available). Dry the case before putting it back on your phone.
Step 2: Clean the Back Panel of your smartphone
You can use a wet cloth or wet wipes as well for Water Resistant smartphones, take liquid soap and clean the back surface by rubbing the soap on the back panel and then cleaning it off with a wet cloth or you can directly use wet wipes to clean in case you cannot find liquid soap. Make sure that you prevent water from getting in into any sockets like charging ports or headphone jack. Avoid Isopropyl alcohol on glass backs as it tends to damage the oleophobic coating on it. In the case of an IP68 water-resistant smartphone, you can wash it under running water.
For Non-Water Resistant smartphones you need to take a soft cloth and apply Isopropyl alcohol and rub on it, in case you do not have it, you can use aftershave lotion as well to clean it by applying on the soft cloth and rubbing the back of the phone with it and clean with a soft cloth later.
Step 3: How to Clean the Display of your Smartphone
It is better to not use running water on the front of your smartphone even if it is a Water-Resistant.
Take a soft cloth and apply Isopropyl Alcohol to it and slightly rub the cloth on the display in a circular motion covering the whole display. Make sure to avoid the Earpiece and the other sockets. Now take a normal clean cloth and clean the surface once again to remove any remnants of the solution or any dust.
We as Dentists follow these steps regularly after the end of the day to make sure that our phone is disinfected properly as it might end up in the hands of our kids at home. In the era of the Coronavirus Pandemic, it is a must for every citizen to follow these steps to keep yourself and your family safe from the Virus.
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