Christmas is approaching, and fast! In a few weeks, you’ll likely be closing down your dental practice for a well-deserved holiday break. No doubt you’ve already got your closing times up on your website, and you’ve sent out a polite email to your customers to let them know when you’ll be reopening.
But, have you prepared your dental suction equipment?
It’s easy to forget to do the correct maintenance on your suction systems before you go away for an extended period of time. But it’s absolutely essential. Otherwise, you’ll come back to seized units and all sorts of headaches and stress, which no one wants in their first week back to work.
Here’s a maintenance refresher…
1. Durr Suction Units
For Durr Suction Units, we recommend using the fluid-concentrate Orotol Plus. This is the ideal solution for simultaneous disinfection and deodorisation, as well as the cleaning and maintenance of all your suction systems and amalgam separators.
Step-by-step maintenance instructions:
- For preliminary treatment: draw off two litres of water.
- Apply a 2% solution in the care system OroCup*: Fill the OroCup up to the two-litre mark with cold water, add 40 ml (two dosing caps) Orotol plus and mix thoroughly.
- Attach suction hoses to the care system and suck up one litre of the solution per unit.
- Pour at least 250ml of solution in the spittoon bowl (distribute 1 litre to max. four spittoons).
- Allow to react for at least one hour or overnight.
- After the reaction time / the next morning, suck up two litres of water.
2. Cattani Suction Units
For Cattani Suction Units, we recommend using Cattani Puli-Jet Gentle. Cleaning, disinfecting and system maintenance are critical for ensuring the long life of your Cattani suction system. Failure to properly clean and disinfect your system before you leave for Christmas break may result in malfunction.
Step-by-step maintenance instructions:
- Fill the Pulse Cleaner with 2.5 litres of warm water.
- Each line on the inside of the Pulse Cleaner represents 1 litre, so fill it up to halfway between the second and third line.
- Place the Puli-Jet Gentle on a level and steady surface.
- Slightly unscrew the red cap (i.e. 1 – 2 revolutions), but do not completely unscrew it.
- Squeeze the bottle softly to force solution into the measuring dispenser.
- Continue to squeeze until the solution reaches the 30 ml mark.
- If too much solution has entered the dispensing chamber, it can be poured back into the main bottle by tipping the bottle towards the small tube on the side.
- Unscrew and remove the red cap. Pour the solution from the dispensing cup into the full Pulse Cleaner. Take care not to allow more solution from the main bottle to flow into the dispensing cup.
- With a disposable cloth, wipe any drips of solution from the bottle (and then dispose of the cloth).
- Connect suction hoses to Pulse Cleaner – adaptors may be required as hose sizes vary. Pulsed aspiration of the solution will happen automatically.
- Once pulsing has stopped, remove hoses from the Pulse Cleaner. Please note a small amount of solution will remain in the bottom of the cleaner. This can be poured down the spittoon or aspirated manually.
- It is highly recommended to continue aspirating air for several minutes before shutting down the suction system. This ensures that the disinfectant reaches the suction unit in the plant room.
If you’re thinking about buying a new suction system for your practice, or you would like to talk to one of our equipment specialists about maintaining your suction equipment, give us a call on 07 3857 0011. Or send us an online enquiry today!
