During current COVID 19 crisis, highest precautionary measures and enhanced cleaning procedures have become the new normal.
In this article you will learn how design-thinking behind the XO unit has hygiene at its core: The XO unit helps you reduce cross contamination and increase infection control of your treatments – for the safety of your patients, but also yourself and your clinic assistant.
We will show you how to properly clean and disinfect your unit and how to prepare it for longer downtime.
Prevention of cross-contamination is a crucial daily operation for any dental practitioner. The effectiveness of cleaning is enhanced through easily accessible dental equipment components and automatized procedures. Furthermore, the parts that are subject to intensive cleaning must be durable and maintain their functionality over many years of demanding use.
XO CARE’s infection control concept is simple but effective: we reduced the number of elements that dental professionals need to touch to a minimum. Elements which must still come into direct contact with the hands have to be easy to detach, clean, disinfect and, preferably, to autoclave.
Infection control is associated not only with daily procedures, but also with long-term maintenance of cleanliness of the unit's water system, e.g. for longer downtime at work.
We understand that managing asepsis procedures related to your dental equipment should not be a time-consuming process. Therefore, the solutions we have developed enable fast cleaning and automation of many manual infection prevention procedures. In this way, we deliver you high efficiency and maximize the time you spend treating your patients. You can rest assured that everything is as clean as it should be.
XO dental units are foot controlled. During the treatment, the practitioner does not have to use their hands to change instrument settings or adjust the position of the chair, etc. This significantly reduces the risk of cross-contamination.
The antibacterial paint on metal elements prevents the growth of bacteria and fungi on the surfaces of the unit. The antibacterial qualities of the paint were obtained by incorporating silver ions into the paint’s structure. The germ-destroying properties of the silver ions are activated by moisture in the air.
The paint successfully prevents microbial growth by:
Antibacterial properties are preserved in the paint over its lifetime, providing a continuous, long-lasting effect.
XO units have smooth and easy-to-clean surfaces. The unit covers are made of aluminum, which guarantees long-lasting color and surface smoothness, even after many years of rigorous cleaning.
All parts that come into direct contact with the practitioner’s hands or instruments can be cleaned in a thermodisinfector and/or sterilized in an autoclave.
Most of plastic and rubber parts can be cleaned in the thermodisinfector at 90⁰C and autoclaved at max. 134⁰C.
The cuspidor bowl parts, cup holder, suction filters and instrument suspensions can be thermodisinfected at 90⁰C.
Generally, dental water connections can be a habitat for microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and protozoa, resulting in biofilm formation1-4. Regular disinfection of the water connections prevents the growth of these microorganisms and the formation of biofilm.
XO Water Disinfection constantly cleanses the unit's water system by introducing a small amount of hydrogen peroxide into the treatment water.
What's more, the system offers daily 2-stage (so-called night) and single-stage (intensive) water pipe cleaning procedures. During the daily procedure, the system is completely drained at night and then disinfected in the morning. An intensive procedure is recommended after a long period of non-use.
Studies confirm the ability of XO Water Disinfection to maintain high water quality when using XO units.
It takes less than a minute to start the automatic process of disinfecting mammals. During the process, the mammalian tubes are flushed with disinfectant and then completely dried. The same system also allows automatic flushing of the unit's water system with water required after e.g. surgical procedures.
Suction filters on XO units are easily cleaned without touching the filter. Simply press the button to eject the suction filter.
When you stop the rotation of a turbine, the rotor blades which are still spinning, create a vacuum and may suck liquids from patient’s mouth into the turbine. To prevent this issue, the XO 4 unit will blow a small amount of air after the turbine is stopped.
Similar situation occurs when working with a micromotor with water. When you stop the rotation of an instrument the water valve is immediately closed as well. The water which is still flowing creates a vacuum just after the water valve. Once the water loses its fictitious force, the pressure of the vacuum sucks back the water along with liquids from patient’s mouth. Automatic, powerful chip blower on XO units blows out all the remaining water and prevents the retraction of liquids into the instrument.
In the following tutorial you will learn the daily routines for properly cleaning and disinfecting parts of the unit to control the risk of infection:
The XO FLEX patient chair upholstery adapts to the patient's body shape and is covered with a very comfortable XO Comfort material - learn how to care for it correctly:
Our complete range of hygiene products will help you maintaining superior cleanliness standards in your dental treatment room:
In the case of longer office downtime, in addition to the daily procedures for maintaining the cleanliness of the XO unit, we recommend the following procedures:
A. XO Units with build-in Water disinfection system
Note: Instruments shall be put back after each FLUSH process!
Unit is now ready for use.
B. XO Units without Water disinfection system
Unit is now ready for use.
Article sources
1 Walker JT, Bradshaw DJ, Bennett AM, Fulford MR, Martin MV, Marsh PD. Microbial biofilm formation and contamination of dental-unit water systems in general dental practice. Appl Environ Microbiol 2000;66:3363-7.
2 Schulze-Robbecke R, Feldmann C, Fischeder R, Janning B, Exner M, Wahl G. Dental units: an environmental study of sources of potentially pathogenic mycobacteria. Tuber Lung Dis 1995;76:318-23.
3 Barbeau J, Tanguay R, Faucher E, et al. Multiparametric analysis of waterline contamination in dental units. Appl Environ Microbiol 1996;62:3954-9.
4 Atlas RM, Williams JF, Huntington MK. Legionella contamination of dental-unit waters. Appl Environ Microbiol 1995;61:1208-13.
This article has been written in collaboration with ESDENT Dental Equipment.
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