A Comprehensive System for the Prevention and Remediation of Biofilms in Dental Equipment

There is a substantial body of evidence demonstrating that biofilms growing inside the water lines of dental units pose a significant risk as a source of infection. The problem has been recognized by practitioners, regulators, manufacturers, and the ADA, with the ADA proposing a set of guidelines for water quality that include a limit of 200 colony forming units per milliliter for the year 2000. This quality standard exceeds the quality of most public water supplies, insuring that a water treatment system will be needed. Current dental unit water treatment systems are either incapable of meeting these standards, require excessive attention from the operator, or both. The water purification system propsed here used a four-step process to prevent biofilm formation and insure water qulity for the patient while using only tap water and electricity on an everyday basis, and requiring only occasional replacement of filter elements. Besides killing incoming bacteria to suppress the formation of biofilms, the system used hydrogen peroside generated electrochemically from the water stream to destroy any remaining microorganisms, suppress the growth of any that are not destroyed, reduce viral concentrations, and oxidize the remains of the microoganisms and their extracellular products. The proposed system can be rerofitted onto a variety of existing dental units and will insure the delivery of only high quality water for use in dental procedures.