Municipal water quality is highly variable depending on your location. This chemical variability can undermine the effectiveness of microbial treatment products like straws and tablets and potentially reduce the life of your instruments.
Dental unit waterline (DUWL) management is vital in dentistry to control biofilm buildup, minimize the risk of waterborne infections, and maintain the quality of the dental water supply to ensure safe and effective dental treatment for patients.
NXT DryVac is a tankless dry vacuum system that provides superior performance with low acquisition costs and virtually no maintenance, all in a compact footprint for easy installation.
Featuring top-tier technology, the NXT Hg5 represents the gold standard in amalgam separation for your office. Our signature separator—the NXT Hg5—comes in several sizes to fit the needs of your practice.
Waste management is essential in dentistry to reduce the environmental impact of dental practices, prevent the spread of infectious diseases, and comply with regulatory requirements.
Solmetex provides dental practices with simple, safe, and effective solutions for removing harmful contaminants from their water supply, enabling safe disposal and recycling of hazardous waste, and best-in-class products for wastewater evacuation.
Sterisil ensures water for non-surgical procedures is clean and safe by offering effective, and convenient water purification, treatment, and testing solutions.
DryShield leads the market in providing clinicians with isolation technology that maximizes ease, comfort, safety, and productivity.
Expand your dental water safety education with resources like CE courses, tutorials and videos, and the Water Matters blog.
Specifically amalgam separators, with a primary focus on ensuring dental practices remain compliant with the ever-changing regulatory environment.
Find our current promotions for Solmetex, Sterisil and DryShield in one place.
Make sure your office stays compliant with EPA and state regulations.
Keep track of your amalgam waste recycling certificates.
Log, trend, and respond to ongoing bacteria testing efforts.
Schedule your orders to ensure you are never without products.
Register your water safety products and receive proof of installation certificates.
Request customer support and track your case to its resolution.
We have extensive experience in
water chemistry, chemical separation science, process engineering,
high performance manufacturing, as well as federal, state and local
regulations governing water and hazardous wastes.
Print and place your shipping label on the box containing your recyclables.
Print and place your recycling certificate on your full amalgam separator canister, or lead buckets to be EPA-compliant.
Purchase products for all your dental water management needs from Solmetex, Sterisil, and DryShield.
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Is Mercury Dangerous?
Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that bioaccumulates in fish and shellfish. Mercury pollution is widespread and a global concern that originates from many diverse sources such as air deposition from municipal and industrial incinerators and combustion of fossil fuels.
Neurological and behavioral disorders may be observed after inhalation, ingestion or dermal exposure of different mercury compounds. Symptoms include tremors, insomnia, memory loss, neuromuscular effects, headaches and cognitive and motor dysfunction. Mild, subclinical signs of central nervous system toxicity can be seen in workers exposed to an elemental mercury level in the air of 20 μg/m3 or more for several years.
Key Facts About Dental Practices And Mercury
According to the EPA, more than 100,000 dental practices in the US use or remove amalgam. As you know, amalgam contains mercury which is safe in a solid state in a patient’s mouth. However, more than 5 tons of mercury are discharged through wastewater lines to municipal treatment plants and then released into the environment EACH YEAR. Dental offices are the main source of mercury discharge to these municipal treatment plants.
The Regulation
After more than 10 years of research and comment, the EPA concluded in December 2016 that amalgam separators were a ‘practical solution to keeping mercury out of public water supplies’. So, the EPA released the mercury waste regulation on December 15, 2016, however this does not become official until it is published by the Office of the Federal Register in the Federal Register.
“The EPA has concluded that requiring dental offices to remove mercury through relatively low-cost and readily available amalgam separators and [best management standards] makes sense,” the EPA stated in its executive summary of the final rule.
Who Needs To Use An Amalgam Separator
The new rules apply to dental offices, dental schools, and clinics that discharge water to a municipal treatment plant. These regulations do not apply to mobile units or offices where the practice “consists only” of the following specialties:
Best Practices For Amalgam Separation
The regulations will require that a practice be subject to two best management practices:
The EPA ruling also requires practices to install an amalgam separator that meets certain requirements, or replace the separator they have with equipment that meets the requirements (within 10 years). The amalgam separator must be compliant with either the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) American National Standard/ADA Specification No. 108 for Amalgam Separators (2009) with Technical Addendum (2011) or the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 11143 Standard (2008), or subsequent versions so long as that version requires amalgam separators to achieve at least a 95% removal efficiency.
Compliance & Recycling
Dental offices must also submit a compliance report and have maintenance and inspection records available.
Dental offices discharge mercury present in amalgam used for fillings. Amalgam separators are a practical, affordable and readily available technology for capturing mercury and other metals before they are discharged into sewers that drain to POTWs. Once captured by a separator, mercury can and should be recycled. Check with your amalgam separator company to see if they recycle – some do and some don’t.
New Dental Offices
The compliance date for new dental offices (“new sources”) is the effective date of the rule. So, if you are new dental practice coming out of the ground, your best practice would be to get ahead of the regulation and do the right thing. Amalgam separation is not only the future, it’s the right thing to do.
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