Your Safety is Our #1 Priority!

Dental Water Lines

How “clean” is the water sprayed in your mouth, coming out of the faucet and handpieces in the dental office? Every day millions of dental patients come to their dental appointments without ever really giving the subject any thought. But in reality, dental waterlines, due to the nature of their construction, can harbor thousands of bacteria and microorganisms that you would not want introduced into your mouth, either in drinking water or as part of a dental appointment. According to the Organization for Safety, Asepsis, and Prevention (OSAP), colony forming units (CFU) of bacteria can rapidly spread, exceeding 1,000,000 CFU/mL within a few days in dental unit waterlines (DUWL). This accumulated bacterial load is commonly referred to as biofilm. If the water in question is left untreated, it can cause some real health problems.

The American Dental Association (ADA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have determined that the safe level for dental waterline bacterial content is less than 500 CFU/ml. Similarly, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also set the limit to less than 500 CFU/mL at 35 degrees Centigrade as safe for drinking water.

In light of these guidelines, Life Dental & Orthodontics uses the best available solution: a source water filtration system (Sterisil Straw) to treat our dental water and reduce the bacterial level down to less than 10 CFU/mL, which by far exceeds the safety requirements.

So when you are at our office, you do not have to worry about what is going into your mouth. Dr Hockel and the whole team at Life Dental & Orthodontics are working hard to ensuring that your dental and orthodontic visits are as safe as possible.

Also key are our top-notch team training with OSHA expert Tom Terry and ongoing compliance with our infection control SOPs. We take our patients’ safety very seriously!

Radiation Safety

We provide an extremely safe, state-of-the-art CBCT (Cone beam computed tomography) medical imaging device. This device is used purely for diagnostic reasons and is nowhere near a level of radiation exposure which would cause you harm. Your dental (and overall) health is our primary goal and we would not use any techniques or technologies which would undermine it. The CBCT device is a tremendous asset used in countless dental offices to help provide patients with the best possible care.