Dental Unit Waterlines: A Survey of Practices in Eastern France

Alexandre Baudet, Julie Lizon, Jean-Marc Martrette, Frédéric Camelot, Arnaud Florentin and Céline Clément
Additional contact information
Alexandre Baudet: Faculty of Dentistry, University of Lorraine, 54505 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France
Julie Lizon: Department of Hygiene and Environmental Analysis, University Hospital, 54505 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France
Jean-Marc Martrette: Faculty of Dentistry, University of Lorraine, 54505 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France
Frédéric Camelot: Dental Private Practice, 88300 Neufchateau, France
Arnaud Florentin: Department of Hygiene and Environmental Analysis, University Hospital, 54505 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France
Céline Clément: Faculty of Dentistry, University of Lorraine, 54505 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 21, 1-8

Abstract: Water is essential during dental care. Physical and chemical techniques should be used to maintain a good water quality with respect to bacteria, and to ensure the safety of exposed patients and dental staff. The aim of this survey was to assess the modalities used by dental practitioners in Eastern France to maintain the water quality of their dental unit waterlines (DUWLs). A questionnaire about water quality maintenance practices was sent to 870 dental offices in 2016. The questionnaires were completed by 153 dental offices, covering about 223 dental care units. The majority of units were fed by mains water (91.0%), which is generally unfiltered (71.3%). One-third (33.6%) of the units had an independent water bottle reservoir. Flushing, a basic physical technique to improve the quality of units’ outflow water, was practiced in 65.4% of dental offices. Concerning the chemical treatment of water, it was used for 62.1% of the units. An analysis of the microbiological quality of the DUWL water was only carried out in 2.6% of the offices. In conclusion, providing better training to dental staff seems necessary to improve their practices and to generalize procedures that improve the microbiological quality of the water used.

Keywords: water quality; infectious control; occupational practices; dental chair; waterlines (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/21/4242/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/21/4242/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:21:p:4242-:d:282433

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().