(6213) Dental Unit Waterlines: It’s time to Clear the Confusion!

Friday, October 24, 2025

2:00 PM – 5:00 PM ET

CE: 3

Speaker(s)

Marie T. Fluent, DDS, CDIPC, FACD (she/her/hers)

Infection Control Consultant
mariefluent.com
Dexter, Michigan, United States
Nancy L. Dewhirst, RDH (she/her/hers)

Adjunct Faculty
West Coast University
Laguna Beach, California, United States

Disclosure(s):

Marie T. Fluent, DDS, CDIPC, FACD: SteriLine, LLC: Ownership Interest (stocks, stock options, patent or other intellectual property or other ownership interest excluding diversified mutual funds) (Ongoing)

Nancy L. Dewhirst, RDH: ProEdge: educational support, samples (Ongoing); Solmetex: educational support, samples (Ongoing)

Dental water is vital to modern dentistry and clinicians are required to meet safe water standards, rules and guidelines—but building a trusted process to ensure continuously safe water can be daunting. This interactive workshop untangles dental unit waterline (DUWL) confusion, we will review DUWL infection risks and methods to reduce the risks by controlling biofilms with options to monitor safety levels. After considering various options to treat, shock and test DUWL, you will create a written standard operating procedure.

Learning Objectives:

Describe how and why biofilms form in dental equipment
Make evidence-based choices in the selection of waterline treatment products
Identify guidelines, regulations and best practices that impact dental unit water quality and compliance
Discuss rationale and indications for testing dental unit waterlines
Describe the components of an office-specific standard operating procedure for dental unit waterlines