Important Instructions for Water Compliance & Waterline Maintenance (for use with all Parkell Ultrasonic Scalers)

Background

Effective dental unit waterline maintenance is a key component of an infection control program. This is due to the fact that water flowing through the long internal waterlines of dental equipment (including ultrasonic scalers) can harbor bacteria, and if untreated can harm your patients or staff.

Proper Water Compliance and Waterline Management

The U.S. CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommends the use of water that meets the EPA regulatory standards for drinking water (i.e., 500 CFU/mL of heterotrophic water bacteria) for non-surgical, routine dental procedures. This includes, for example, the water used in ultrasonic dental scalers such as Parkell’s scalers.

To help you stay in compliance with CDC recommendations, we provide procedural recommendations below. These recommendations should be incorporated into your offices’ daily/weekly/monthly waterline maintenance routine and should become part of the standard operating procedure you employ when using and maintaining your Parkell ultrasonic scaler system.

With New Parkell Scalers

• Before use on a patient clinically for the first time, an initial cleaning (shock treatment) should be performed, followed by water testing, in order to ensure that water bacteria levels are acceptable (i.e., 500 CFU/mL). If bacterial levels are higher than 500 CFU/mL, it may be necessary to repeat this process.
• Products designed for both shocking and testing are readily available and should be used as per the specific manufacturer’s instructions.

Waterline Maintenance

There are 3 critical steps to proper waterline maintenance: Test.  Shock.  Maintain.

1. Test: It is important to regularly monitor the water that passes through your scaler. Without testing, it is impossible to know if your water meets the CDC recommendations for quality and safety (i.e., 500 CFU/mL of heterotrophic water bacteria). Moreover, the frequency of your water testing depends on your ability to obtain consistent results that fall within CDC recommendations for water quality. Such testing should be performed in all your treatment rooms. Once acceptable waterline test results are achieved, subsequent waterline testing may be performed monthly. After three successive months of successfully achieving your water quality goals, testing frequency may be able to be reduced to once every three months, though CDC and local recommendations should always be reviewed prior to doing so. There are two types of dental waterline tests: in-office chairside test kits and mail-in external lab services. Because water quality can change quickly, Parkell recommends using a combination of both services to ensure compliance.
2. Shock: Shock treatment(s) of scaler waterlines should always be done prior to first usage. After first use, monitoring your water quality through the above-described testing will help you determine if additional shock treatments are needed. Whenever applying any dental waterline treatment, always follow the manufacturer’s instructions associated with the treatment product.
3. Maintain: Once acceptable waterline test results are achieved, a maintenance solution for dental unit waterlines (or tablets or the like) should be used once a week as recommended by the CDC. Importantly, when using any of the various maintenance products on the market, please ensure that you are following the manufacturer’s instructions associated with the product.

Important Warranty Information

Parkell does not support or endorse the use of chemical formulations made in the office as it is very difficult to maintain consistent chemistry from mix to mix. Using such “homemade” products may damage the internal components of the scaler and, therefore, may void any warranty repair determined to be related to such use.

Additional Resources

It is critically important to continuously monitor developments as they occur around local and federal water quality standards and recommendations. Two example sources for such information are:

• Association for Dental Safety (ADS) Formerly known as OSAP  www.myads.org
• CDC www.cdc.gov/oralhealth

Always remember — Parkell is here to help!

If, at any time, you have questions or concerns about Parkell ultrasonic scalers or the proper maintenance of waterlines within your Parkell scaler, email us at compliance@parkell.com. We consider ourselves an extension of your team, and have experts on staff to assist.