Natural oxygen and ionic copper systems have prevented the formation of biofilms and bacteria in dental operating tubage successfully since early 2006.

The ionization and oxygenation dental operatory system can be configured with all forms of conventional water treatment at the point of entry, with or without a conventional water softener and regardless of whether the source water is municipally chlorinated or a conventional well.

Both of the ionization and oxygenation sites in Minneapolis, Minnesota based dental offices have approximately 400ppm calcium, .3ppm iron and use a 2 cube GAC filter with a one inch valve. One site uses a 48,000 grain softener (Brite Smiles) and the other uses the electronics for bicarbonate calcium control (Steiner Dental).

The potential for dangerous biofilm microbes has been noted by federal regulatory agencies including OSHA and is noted periodically in industry trade periodicals and was highlighted on ABC’s 20/20 in a piece called “The Dentist’s Dirty Little Secret”.

The dental system is a slightly more sophisticated version of the residential purifiers, also with root technology from NASA. Apollo missions required three weeks of bacteria control and a fear of moon microbes. Ionic metal residuals are extremely stable, lethal to single cell microbes and healthy for humans.

Dental offices are furnished with a Millipore bacteria test kit along with a simple five drop Lamotte EC test kit, with testing assigned to the employee who sterilizes the instruments. Dental personnel begin by testing every day and eventually settle into a weekly routine.

The concept is simple. They simply pretend the dental office is an Apollo Lunar Module when NASA used ionization on three week missions to the moon. They used the ionization because it was more effective on single cell microbes than chlorine, had a safe and stable residual for humans and was the best technology to combat moon microbes.

The dental system treats full facility water at 1500 available gallons per day, requires annual purchase of test kits for $75 and semi-annual anode cleaning furnished by the local dealer for around $156.

Properly installed, the electronics prevent the formulation of bacteria in the point-of-entry filters and allow a three year filter life at an installed cost of around $5000.

Annually the ionization and oxygenation purification system can treat easily 250,000 gallons for less than $500, factoring in the water test reagents and the filter replacement at three years. At 1/5 of one penny per gallon (.002) this is a small price to pay for the safety of the dental patients and the dental employees.