• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.507-516
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• 2016

Objectives: The purpose of the study is to investigate the awareness and practice of dental unit waterline management in dental hygienist. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was completed by 377 dental hygienists in Seoul and Gyeonggido from March 2 to April 30, 2015. The data were collected by direct visit and informed consent was received after explanation of the study. The questionnaire consisted of general characteristics of the subjects, awareness of dental waterline, practice of dental waterline, and implementation of dental waterline disinfection. Data were analyzed using SPSS 12.0 program. Results: There was a significant correlation between the dental unit waterline disinfection and the appropriateness of the water used for dental treatment(p<0.01, p<0.001). The handpiece was the most commonly used device before treatment and the majority of the subjects answered that they didn't take water out of ultrasonic scaler and air-water syringe on a daily basis. Conclusions: The majority of the dental hygienists did not know the right understanding and proper practice of dental unit waterline management. To reduce the dental device contamination, the continuing education of waterline management should be done for the dental hygienists.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.27-31
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to gather biofilm of unit chair waterline in the laboratory, to analyze microorganisms, to apply the existing draw-off method and the method of using disinfectant, and to compare the change of the number of microorganisms. The water was provided by the waterline of the unitchair, and the gathered samples were cultured with the use of R2A agar plate. Bacterial species separated through the identification of microorganisms were analyzed. To identify the decrease of microorganism for draw-off, samples were gathered in the intervals of 30 seconds, 60 seconds and 120 seconds, and to identify the effect of disinfectant, samples after disinfection were gathered. The quantitative comparison of microorganisms through the gathered samples was done by SPSS program. The number of identified bacteria are 8 species, most of which are gram-negative bacterium, and Sphingomonas type. The rapid decrease of the number of microorganism through draw-off for 60 seconds was confirmed, and microorganisms after disinfection weren't detected right away. Based on the method and result of this study, the water pipe of unit chair, which can be neglected easily, can be managed, so cross infection can be prevented, and systemic management can be possible.