This is made worse when a drill unit is used. Contaminated water from the dental handpiece can then suck back and contaminate the water supply in the water line. Non-return valves are now fitted on all dental drill units to eliminate water suck back into the water lines. In addition various products are available which when added to the water supply lines eliminate the biofilm on water tubing. All dental practices have an air compressor which provides compressed air to drive the dental drill units and the air syringe which dries the tooth surface in the mouth.
Airlines can build up a micro organism biofilm in the same way as water lines.
All air compressors fitted in dental surgeries have filters both to filter incoming air into the compressor and filter the compressed air supplied to the drill cart. The flooring in a dental surgery has to be high quality bonded washable flooring with coved edges. This means the flooring is curved upwards and bonded onto the base of the wall or floor unit so that no gap exists between the flooring and the wall where debris can accumulate. This combined with effective floor cleaning considerably reduces the presence of micro organisms in the surgery. These have to be washable hard surfaces suitable for disinfecting to reduce the micro organism count.