Responding To The Headlines: Dental Water-Line Safety

Responding To The Headlines: Dental Water-Line Safety

Some of you may have read the recent news story out of Anaheim, CA about issues with water-line contamination that caused serious infections in 30 children. Investigators believe the bacteria grew in low-level, stagnant water that wasn’t “flushed.” I take that to mean that the office had plumbing lines that dipped into areas lower than the source and the end-user, creating a pooling effect where the water stagnated. It should also be noted that the specific procedure that was provided to all of these children (a pulpotomy or partial root canal) is appropriate on severely decayed baby teeth, but I have not performed any in many years.

Regarding water-line safety, I want to assure of several things.

  • Our chair-side delivery systems are NOT connected to the city water supply by plumbing lines in our office.
  • Each room has a small pressurized water bottle into which we place distilled water.
  • There are no areas of stagnation, as the water travels only several feet from the bottle to where it is used to either rinse or cool your teeth as I provide various treatments.

Distilled water is a sterile liquid because it is produced by boiling water and condensing the steam, leaving behind any dissolved solids (the things that cause ‘hard’ water) and killing any living organism in the source water. Don’t be alarmed by such news stories. You’re in good hands here in West Chester, PA.