During this recent period of information overload about the Waterline contamination, the response of the Dental Profession has fallen into three categories. Those who have viewed it as a crisis may have decided to rearrange their affairs and retire early. Those who believe it is a non-issue either don't think the science is true or hope that the issue will go away. Finally, there is a serious group who believe that Waterline Contamination is primarily an Ethical Responsibility and secondly, an Opportunity to market their practice by showing their patients that they are concerned about their safety and well-being.

If you knew the program was coming, and had pro-acted by posting signs in your office stating "This office sterilizes ALL Dental Handpieces and Instruments" THEN would your patients have greeted the Sunday night "60 Minutes" viewing without stress and told the Monday morning Water Cooler Group at work - "My Dentist does that already"?

Extensive testing of over 4,000 Dental Waterlines across North America has shown that traditional Dental Clinics with a city water feed will average 375,000 Colony Forming Units (CFU) of bacteria per millilitre of water sample. Those who ventured into independent water bottle systems and did not maintain them averaged 1,200,000 CFU/mL.1 Over 10% of the offices tested had pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa in their lines.1 One study showed that 50% of the Dental samples had Mycobacterium species (TB family) in them.2 In another recent study, 29 of 35 offices tested had ORAL Streptococci in the Dental Waterlines,3 indicating that retraction is a very real problem. Federal Standards for potable drinking water in the United States and Canada state that the MAXIMUM is 500 CFU/mL of bacteria with NO E. coli or Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In 1996 the American Dental Association recommended that all dentists provide treatment water with less than 200 CFU/mL by the year 2000.

1. Continent-Wide DUWL Study. Micrylium Laboratories, Phoenix /Toronto 1997-99
2. Mycobacterium species in Dental Water. Springthorpe, S. University of Ottawa, 1999
3. Detection of Oral Streptococci in DUWL. Shepherd, P.A., University of Louisville, 1998

Although it is perceived that city water is inferior, it is actually of excellent microbiological quality. It often contains Chlorine which helps maintain low bacterial levels in water that has minimal organic material, provided high flow rates are maintained. We, however, may sometimes wish to get away from city water to avoid the occasional outbreaks of Legionella, Cryptosporidia and perhaps Mycobacterium avia in our communities. Prior to using Independent Water Reservoirs, ensure that your water bottle has been disinfected by a non-toxic solution. The water that is to be added to the bottle should be either sterile or distilled from a commercial supplier. After opening, it must be refrigerated. In-house distilled water often can have bacterial counts in excess of 100,000 Colony Forming Units of Bacteria per millilitre. Remember that in standing water that has no kill (i.e. distilled water), bacteria populations may double in only 20 minutes.