Advice to dental practitioners in flooded regions

Implications for dentists regarding the use of water.

With flooding across several areas of Australia, there is a potential concern that the quality of the reticulated water systems could be compromised if local water treatment infrastructure is affected. Fortunately water quality has not surfaced as a major issue despite the wide range of areas affected by flooding.

If the local authority advises that the reticulated drinking water is not potable and requires boiling in order to be safe to drink, this has implications for dental practice.

The basic strategy to follow if the local reticulated water is identified as being unsafe or questionable is to use self-contained water supplies with water which has been treated to inactivate or remove pathogens. This can be done by using commercially available bottled water as the supply source for self-contained water, since this has already been treated by ozonation. If the existing reticulated water is used, the advice of local authorities must be followed, which would mean that tap water should be boiled first before using it, until advised otherwise.