Comparison of in-office dental unit waterline test kits.
The authors conducted a study to determine the validity of two commercially available in-office dental unit waterline test kits compared to the gold standard, R2A agar. Samples were collected from the air/water syringes of dental units and cultured on HPC Samplers, Petrifilm AC Plates, and R2A agar plates. HPC Samplers and R2A agar plates were incubated for 7 days and counted manually using magnification. Petrifilm AC Plates were counted after incubation time of 5 and 7 days using an electronic-plate reader. Validity measurements were calculated using a cutoff value < or = 500 colony-forming units per milliliter. The accuracy for the HPC Sampler compared to R2A agar was 71%. The accuracy for the Petrifilm AC Plates at 5 and 7 days was 79% and 87% compared to R2A agar. The Petrifilm AC Plate (7-day incubation) demonstrated higher sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and accuracy than the HPC Sampler kit.
Dunn Dental Clinic, Wilford Hall Medical Center, 1615 Truemper St., Lackland AFB, TX 78236, USA.
Barry F
BF
Morris
Kraig S
KS
Vandewalle
Donna M
DM
Hensley
Joseph A
JA
Bartoloni
D058491:Bacterial Load / Q000295:instrumentation; D003748:Dental Equipment; D004866:Equipment Contamination / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D019552:Infection Control, Dental / Q000379:methods*; D008885:Military Dentistry; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014871:Water Microbiology
D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic