Water used in most dental practices is supplied through thin plastic tubing that carries it to devices such as a high speed hand piece or air water syringe and subsequently to the patient’s mouth, from a chair side reservoir.
It is something that our patients don’t think about, but it is up to us to make sure that the water that we use is safe. Of course the water that we use is clean! But the problem lies in the supply lines that feed our hand instruments. The supply lines of our hand instruments are 1/8″ in diameter. This slows the water flow & helps the bacteria’s to build up. Once established, these organisms start forming CFU’s (Colony forming Units) and build up on the walls of the lines & further restricts water flow which only enhances the development of bio-films.
In about 30 seconds the average dental chair gives birth to half a million new bacteria. In the same 30 seconds, the flow of cooling water to a dental drill will have flushed out approx. 3% of the water in the chair, leaving 97% to stagnate. Many researches have shown that the stagnant water in dental chairs contain Legionella bacteria and it is known that dentists & their assistants inhale Legionella because various studies have shown that their antibody levels to be higher than the general public population. In fact mechanically created aerosols, such as those created by turbine drills, contain smaller particles that linger longer and penetrate deeper into lungs than hotel air conditioners.
Some believe that using distilled water will solve the problem, but it won’t. The moment the water bottle is open it is exposed to air. Suck-back is also a problem. Once it reaches the smaller water lines, distilled water is not free of living organisms and the water itself is the medium for rapid development of bio-film development. Not only is the bio-film build-up potentially harmful to our patients, but also break loose and harm & clog our expensive hand instruments. This water is so stagnant that it contains more bacteria then in a washroom urinal. If you put disinfectant in the water bottle, then you need to flush the water lines for at least five minutes to get the active disinfectant to the ends, because the redox reducing capacity of disinfectants quickly inactivates disinfectants.
We have researched the failings of most the methods of dental chair sanitation and innovated water-supply hoses that are made in materials that slow the growth of bacteria, fungi & bio-film. The outer hose is extruded in-house with high grade special elastomers which are non-sticky & carry a long life while in usage. These tubing have been issued a German certification & patent for our tube extruding methods from German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water (DVGW) – Standard W 270 & KTW (Microbial Enhancement on Materials to Come into Contact with Drinking Water) . The test reports have shown effectiveness in countering the growth, development of bacteria’s & bio-film in waterlines. These form part of the ACE Dental Unit package in the 100 & 300 series.