Some do it once a day. Some do it once a week. Some even do both plus a monthly procedure. Regardless of the frequency and how it is performed, dental suction maintenance is no doubt critical to the long-term performance of the dental suction unit.

As dental care professionals, it is important to apply the appropriate product to your suction equipment and understand its capabilities and limitations to ensure not only the health of your machine but also for infection control and for the safety of staff and patients.

Cleaning vs. Disinfecting

There is a common misconception that cleaning and disinfecting are the same thing, but they are not. It is imperative to distinguish the difference between the two by starting with the label. This is certainly true when it comes to dental suction disinfectants, as there is a wide range of associated cleaning and disinfection products in the marketplace. Here are some of the common product types and the purposes they serve.

 

Cleaners

Sanitisers and other cleaning preparations may be used for the scheduled cleaning of suction systems. Such products could be labelled to claim benefits of:

i) removal of deposits; or

ii) sanitising; or

iii) decontaminating; or

iv) deodorising; or

v) defoaming; or

vi) descaling

 

At the same time, this category of cleaning products should not claim that the products are:

i) a disinfectant; or

ii) a sterilant; or

iii) bactericidal, sporicidal, tuberculocidal or virucidal; or

iv) fungicidal unless the claims are limited to the use of the product in the food and beverage industries, or in the destruction of mould.

 

Disinfectants

Disinfectants are a substance that is recommended by its manufacturer for application to an inanimate object to kill microorganisms and is not represented by the manufacturer to be suitable for internal use.

 

It is all in the label

It is important to note that certain cleaning products, such as a sanitiser, cannot make virucidal, sporicidal, tuberculocidal or bactericidal claims even by implication. Unless the product is to be relabelled and reclassified as a disinfectant before being made available on the market to consumers.

 

Conclusion

The first step to a healthy dental suction system is by reading the product label and determining whether your cleaning product is a cleaner or a disinfectant. To find out which disinfectant is suitable for your equipment, speak to your supplier or technical team. This will ensure we help you keep your suction system disinfected and operating at its best.

PULI-JET Gentle 2.0 Disinfectant

• Non-foaming
• Once a day
• Non-contact dosage – measuring is contained in the specially designed chamber
• Easy-to-use
• 1 litre provides 33 disinfection treatments

Learn more about our disinfectant consumables at our Magnolia disinfecting products page.

Alternatively, call us now on 03 9484 1120.