The importance of strict infection prevention protocols in the dental office cannot be overemphasized. In addition to the common cold and influenza, other infections and diseases are easily transmissible in dental offices. These can range from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to E. coli, Pseudomonas, Salmonella, Legionnaires’ disease, and Staphylococcus aureus, to name just a few.
One way that microorganisms can cause cross contamination in the dental office is via water supplies (contaminated city water, biofilm in water lines, and bottled water). This may be exacerbated by low flow rates, long idle periods, and stagnate water. Patients contribute to the microbial load by having poor hand and oral hygiene, coughing and sneezing, and the spatter of fluids that occurs during treatment that may contaminate furniture, instruments, and peripheral equipment, to which subsequent patients and staff can be exposed.
Consider this scary fact: one bacterium splits every 20 minutes, culminating in the creation of more than 8 million cells within just 1 day. Patients and practitioners exposed to treatment water with greater than 500 CFU/mL are at risk for several bacterial- and fungal-related illnesses. Most of these microbes are from the public water supply and are classified as opportunistic pathogens, meaning they do not usually pose a high risk of disease for healthy people. This fact has direct implications for dentistry because increasing numbers of patients routinely seek dental treatment who have weakened immune systems. With elderly patients living longer and retaining permanent dentition, and children visiting the dentist at younger ages, this exposure creates a heightened risk.
“I was attending CEREC 30 when they rolled out the brand-new Dentsply Sirona Treatment Centers—the Teneo and the Intego. We happened to be ready to add a new operatory to our office so when we hit the showroom floor, within an hour we were purchasing our brand new Teneo.
Things happened fast after that: we met with contractors, built out the room, hooked up new computers, etc. In fact, it was such a whirlwind I didn’t even realize that the Teneo doesn’t have its own water reservoir. It’s hooked up to our municipal water supply…wait, what?”
Dental tubing is the perfect host for biofilm and other contaminates. It has been demonstrated that biofilm can form in new tubing within just 5 days. The tubing is narrow and has a low volume-to-surface ratio. This leaves the biofilm lining the walls of the tubing relatively undisturbed. Downtime overnight and on the weekends allows water to lie in the lines for significant amounts of time.
There are many components to a comprehensive water infection prevention protocol—from what kind of water to use to appropriate cleaning agents. Dentsply Sirona has addressed these concerns with its automatic sanitization in their treatment centers. They have optimized water paths with no dead ends and a built-in air gap. The tubes are as thin as possible. Reflux is minimized. The sanitization system is integrated, allowing for continuous inactivation of microorganisms and periodical cleaning of the water lines. It can be set to run in the morning, after each patient, in the evening, and it can be further customized as necessary. The time savings over manual infection prevention protocol for dental units is about 2.5 hours per month with the Teneo system.
“I knew the treatment center flushes its own lines, that was a huge benefit to buying it. But what about us controlling the type of water that went into the system itself? How could we allow this super important issue to get by us? I hadn’t dealt with a municipal water supply in over 30 years, and I was very skeptical to say the least.
In our office, we are proud of our infection control protocols and the training we take to do everything according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and OSHA standards. So, when it came time to testing our dental unit water lines, I wondered how our new Teneo would fare.
I was shocked when the results came back. Only one room passed all the tests completely, and with flying colors. Our Teneo Treatment Center tested out with the air/water tips at 0, a high-speed handpiece line at 10, another one at 0, and the piezo ultrasonic scaler at 0. The Dentosept that runs through the lines, when done properly, keeps the lines clean and well maintained.”
In addition to the automated infection prevention protocols with the Dentsply Sirona Treatment Systems, the hygiene-critical elements, handles, tray, and instrument holder can be removed and thermo-disinfected. The items that can be sterilized include some of the hygiene critical elements, the silicon mat, motor holder, and the cuspidor.
The Dentsply Sirona Treatment Centers were designed to simplify dealing with contaminated water in the dental practice, which can lead to cross-contamination, having to close the practice, and losing time and revenue.
“We are making plans to build a new office, and of course more Teneo Treatment Centers will be installed. When a “chair” can give you that kind of peace of mind for patient protection, why wouldn’t you invest in them? And that’s just one of the many benefits of owning Dentsply Sirona equipment in your practice.” - Tija Hunter, CDA
To read Tija Hunter’s full article, click here.