Employers and dental practices have a Duty of Care to provide a safe working environment for their staff and patients. Dental Unit Waterlines must be tested to ensure a safe working environment is being provided for staff and patients.

Dental unit waterlines have many factors that make them susceptible to biofilm growth, such as: small diameter tubes, very little water flow rate, plastic tubing makes biofilm attachment easy, large surface area to volume ratio, left stagnant for long periods of time and chlorine rapidly dissipates over time.

Dental unit waterlines should always be producing potable water with less than 200 CFU/mL HCC bacteria for immune compromised patients. The only way to confirm this is occurring is to test for HCC bacteria on a regular basis and keep records of the bacterial test results.

There are numerous growths found in dental unit waterlines, such as: Legionella, nematode worms, mycobacterium, pseudomonas, staphylococcus, cryptosporidium and giardia. These growths have been documented on numerous occasions to cause health issues and death from dental procedures.

Disease manifestations linked to contaminated dental unit waterlines include: Legionnaires disease, bronchitis, chronic pneumonia, abscesses, meningitis, chronic lung disease, acute pneumonia, wound infections & respiratory infections.

If you would like a quote to have your dental unit waterlines tested, please don’t hesitate to contact us on lab@watermanagementaustralia.com.au or 08 8557 4347.