Dental Unit Water Systems (DUWS) can be a source of contamination to dentists and
patients specially those immunocompromised. Such organisms may originate from
incoming water supplies and from oral cavities from the patients. The most common
cause of dental unit waters contamination is believed to be the formation and subsequent
sloughing off of microbial biofilms from the surface of tubing within DUWS. There are no
currently evidence-based guidelines available to dentists for the control of DUWS
contamination in Europe. The aim of this study was to investigate the microbial load of
water from DUWS specially the presence of microbial pathogens that can be a source of
cross-contamination between the patients. Water and tube samples were obtained from
40 dental surgeries from the city of Barcelona. The samples were taken from the turbine
and from the air/water syringe. Twelve of these DUWS were fed with hard water from
water mains (with chlorine) and 28 with bottle or tank deionized water. Microbial loading
ranged from 0 to 3.6x103 CFU/ml. Legionella sp., Mycobacterium sp., Pseudomonas
aeruginosa and Candida sp. were found in 4, 8, 6, and 2 different surgeries, respectively.
Inclusive oral streptococci were found in 2 dental units indicating that there is a back
siphonage in the systems analyzed.
Includes 10 references, tables.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 150 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 6 |
| Published : | 09/22/2002 |
