Sterilox Dental Systems decontaminate and disinfect both hard surfaces and inside dental unit water lines (DUWLs) to ensure a safe, clean environment for dental professionals, patients and staff. Unlike one-dimensional products that only claim to maintain lines, Sterilox takes a more comprehensive, multi-dimensional approach. Sterilox is the only major brand proven to:
- Kill and remove biofilms from the inside surfaces of DUWLs
- Keep DUWLs biologically free and clear over time
In fact, Sterilox is more than a product. Sterilox is a whole different philosophy in
disinfection technology.
This philosophy has been scientifically validated and is now accepted practice in many industries including medical device disinfection, food safety, municipal water treatment and more.
In many dental offices the use of ordinary tap water for use in DUWLs is quite common. When using this type of unprotected source water, the opportunity for contamination is very real, as biofilms can occur quickly and without warning. Biofilms colonize and accumulate in these unprotected small bore tubes, and due to the narrowness of the tubing have proven very difficult to flush with normal water pressure alone. Eventually this biofilm can become so thick and encrusted that water flow to your dental instruments and irrigation can become restricted.
The quality of the water that flows through DUWLs can certainly affect the health of patients during dental procedures, and that of staff when they inhale the aerosol mist from the dental hand tools connected to DUWLs. Alarmingly, real world studies have shown that lines can have hundreds of thousands of harmful bacteria per milliliter of DUWL water - all flowing into the dental patient's oral cavity and your patient's and staff's respiratory zones.
Some of the commonly found water-borne bacterial human pathogens in DUWL samples include:
- Pseudomonas aeruginosa
- Tuberculosis
- Legionella pneumonia
- Staphylococcus spp.
- Klebsiella pneumoniae
- Salmonella
- Moraxella spp.
- Escherichia coli
Note: elevated levels of these pathogens were found in water samples collected from dentists who were certain that they had no contamination problems. Some were using no direct treatment while others were using one of the quick fix tablets, powders or filters - all were mistaken.
These organisms are known to cause serious health risks and even death.
Local, regional and federal authorities establish safe potable water quality level guidelines for human use. In Europe the maximum accepted level of colony forming units of bacteria (cfu's) for potable water used in DUWLs is no more than 100 cfu/ml. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control established a 500 cfu/ml level, while the American Dental Association sets a maximum level of 200 cfu/ml.
Learn more about how Sterilox Dental works to eliminate the DUWL problem.