ProEdge R2A Waterline Mail-in Test Kit with 8 Specimen Vial 80801

FAQs

• How Often Should My Office Test its Water Quality?

  The Organization for Safety, Asepsis, and Prevention (OSAP) recommends the following guidelines for dental practices in waterline testing to ensure the CDC compliance of dental unit water quality at or below 500 CFU/mL:

  Test your waterlines every month. Once passing results are achieved in consecutive months, test quarterly at a minimum. If there is a failure, retest your waterlines after corrective action takes place. Test routinely, even when dental unit or dental treatment product manufacturer instructions provide unclear or absent testing recommendations.

• Why do I need to test?

  Waterlines in functioning dental units have been shown to contain bacterial biofilms up to 50 microns thick, comprised of a heterogeneous population of microorganisms. Although bacterial biofilms remain fixed to the tubing wall, microbes are continuously sloughed off as the water flows through, causing contamination of the patient treatment water.

• How often should I test?

  The Organization for Safety, Asepsis and Prevention (OSAP), recommends testing monthly until consecutive months of passing results to verify the effectiveness of your waterline maintenance protocol, and then quarterly.

• What do I do if one of my lines has a failure?

  With how much still needs to be learned in the industry about waterline maintenance, its much more common to have a waterline failure than you might think. The short answer is simple – shock your waterlines.

• What kind of testing do you do?

  ProEdge utilize the Heterotrophic Plate Count (HPC) method found in Section 9215 in Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 22nd Edition. The HPC is a procedure for estimating the number of live culturable heterotrophic bacteria in water.

• What is a heterotroph?

  Heterotrophs are broadly defined as microorganisms that require organic carbon for growth. They include bacteria, yeasts, and molds.

• What is a CFU?

  A Colony Forming Unit (CFU) is a single cell, pair, chain, or cluster of organisms.

• How do you get bacteria to grow?

  ProEdge use R2A agar, which is a low-nutrient media and is considered best suited to the cultivation of a variety of slow-growing, indigenous water organisms.

• My samples failed and I'm not sure what to do. Do you offer recommendations?

  Absolutely; ProEdge offer a free consultation after every test! They have a team of experts that will work together to find a solution for you. A water consultant will contact you shortly after you receive your results. They have procedures, product information, pass rates by products, and other helpful hints to get you to clean water.

• Where do I send the samples?

  ProEdge Dental Water Labs, 7042 South Revere Parkway, Suite 400, Centennial, CO 80112.

• Why do I have to send my samples overnight?

  ProEdge's methods state that analysis should begin as soon as possible after collection to minimize changes in bacterial population. When analysis cannot begin within 8 hours, sample temperature must stay below 8° C. The maximum elapsed time between collection and analysis should not exceed 30 hours.

• Are Packing Supplies Included?

  Yes! Everything you need to send your samples to ProEdge is included in water kits. The standard kits include an ice pack, an insulated shipping envelope, sample vials, a prepaid FedEx overnight shipping label, instructions, and a sample submission form. The economy kit does not include a prepaid shipping label.

• Can I combine samples to save on testing costs?

  Practices may combine water equal samples from every waterline per dental unit into a single vial. While testing every waterline individually is more exact and bacterial contamination can vary widely between lines, combined or pooled samples can be a cost-effective way for a practice to begin testing waterlines quarterly. Lab recommends testing with combined samples more often than testing every waterline individually less often.

• Do I have to send in all the sample vials at the same time?

  ProEdge encourage you to send all sample vials together in the kit. They do not sell the components (ice pack, insulated shipping mailer, etc.) separately. However, leftover sample vials can be added to any purchased kit, regardless of the size of kit purchased.

• How do I get my report?

  Reports are sent out electronically via e-mail. They will send the report to whomever is listed on the test submission form, so make sure you include the form with your samples.

• How do you determine if I pass?

  The Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the American Dental Associates (ADA) set the guidelines on whether your water passes. Any result below 500 CFU/mL passes while any result 500 CFU/mL or greater fails.

• Why does it take 7 days to get results?

  As Per method 9215C., samples are incubated for 7 days. This allows for the best bacterial growth and accurately represents the conditions in your dental unit waterlines.

• Why does my report say tntc?

  Too Numerous to Count (TNTC) is reported when colonies were either too small or too close together to report an actual number. Their automated colony counter can accurately count to 80,000 CFU/mL.

• Is it possible a waterline gets contaminated during testing?

  Contamination during analysis is highly unlikely; tests are conducted in an aseptic environment. ProEdge incorporate positive and negative controls throughout the testing process to determine if the contamination of plates, pipets, and room air have occurred. ProEdge also prepare two replicate plates for each sample to verify that testing methods are consistent and accurate.

• Who do you notify if I fail a test?

  Reports are 100% confidential. They do not send your report to anyone; reports are for you and only for you.