BluTube Boil Water Advisory

What is a boil-water advisory?

A boil-water advisory is a public health announcement that the public should boil tap water before drinking it. When issued, dental professionals should assume that water from the municipal source is unsafe to drink.

For more information, please download this resource.

CDC boil-water advisory guidelines

During a boil-water advisory, water should not be delivered to patients through the dental unit, ultrasonic scaler, or other dental equipment that uses the public water system.

• Patients should rinse with bottled or distilled water until the boil-water advisory is cancelled. During these advisory periods, tap water should NOT be used to dilute germicides or for hand hygiene unless water has been brought to a rolling boil for greater than 1 minute and cooled before use.

• When the advisory is cancelled, the local water utility should provide guidance for flushing of waterlines to reduce the residual microbial contamination. All incoming waterline from the public water system inside the dental office (e.g., faucets, waterlines, and dental equipment) should be flushed.

• After the incoming public water system lines are flushed, disinfect the dental unit waterlines as recommended by the dental unit manufacturer

Note: If you are using an isolated water source apart from the municipal water supply, the above restrictions do not apply

Visit www.cdc.gov. https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/infectioncontrol/faqs/dental-unit-water-quality.html for more information.

What if i’m using BluTube?

If there is a chance that contaminated water may have been used to fill the self-contained water bottle, and as a result, passed through the BluTube filter, it is recommended to immediately remove the filter. In addition, dental offices are urged to shock and test their dental unit waterlines prior to working with patients to ensure that the waterlines are below 500 CFUs (colony forming units). ProEdge recommends shocking with either Liquid Ultra or Diluted Bleach for best practices.

After shocking your dental unit waterlines, install the new filter following the BluTube IFU’s. Until the boil water advisory is cancelled, use distilled or other potable water in place of tap water in the self-contained water bottle as this will enable continued patient treatment.

What if I’m connected directly to city water?

If you do not have self-container water bottles during a Boil Water Advisory, there is not an effective way to treat and shock your dental unit. We highly recommend retrofitting your dental units with self-contained water bottles in order to treat and shock the unit prior to use. Once retrofitted, you can then follow the steps below:

• Shock your dental waterlines with a strong shock product like Diluted Bleach or Liquid Ultra.

• Use distilled or potable water to flush shock product out with warm water.

• Install the BluTube filter into the unit.

• Use distilled or other potable water to fill up the water bottle for daily use until the boil water advisory is cancelled.