Sterdent Dental Practice, Belgium

Located in Sterrebeek, Belgium, Sterdent is a modern joint dental practice with four dentists and seven assistants. The practice started with just one dentist but has since expanded to four consulting rooms. Recently, all fittings were replaced with Schell infrared taps, in combination with the SSC Bluetooth® module. Each consulting room is equipped with two wash basins – one for the dentist and one for the assistant. Sterdent decided on the wash basin taps from Schell’s CELIS range.

Project data

Dental practice with 4 consulting rooms

Installation: Schell Belgium

SCHELL products: SSC Bluetooth® module, CELIS E electronic wash basin tap

Hygiene and productivity, hand in hand

“I think it’s fascinating how such an apparently small change can have such a big impact on the way that our practice operates,” says dentist Jente Van Ongeval. “Good hand hygiene is of course essential in any dental practice. As a dentist, you constantly have your fingers in and around your patient’s mouth. And the global pandemic has really raised awareness about the need for hygiene. So, to minimise the likelihood of spreading bacteria and viruses about, it’s important that we wash our hands very frequently. In fact, I couldn’t even say how often I wash my hands on a normal working day. Between each patient, of course, but also in-between the various dental treatments that we might provide to a patient. The infrared sensor means we don’t lose any time doing this. You simply place your hands under the tap and water starts to flow and you don’t even have to shut off the tap after you have finished washing. This means we can’t re-contaminate our hands with any bacteria and viruses that could already be present on the tap surface.”

Always clean, always available

“We no longer have to touch the taps to operate them and we don’t have to worry about water quality any more, either,” Van Ongeval explains. “Every morning, at the start of the working day, the Schell fittings are flushed automatically at a preconfigured time. This flushes out the water from the piping – and any bacteria that might have arisen as a result of stagnation. So we can be sure that the water is hygienic even before the taps are used for the first time each day. And when our practice is closed at the weekends or during our seasonal holidays, this process continues, to ensure that no contamination can develop in the piping.”

SSC Bluetooth® module

Since the fittings are programmable, the Sterdent Dental Practice can simply decide once when the flushes should be carried out. “We used to have to remember to let the taps run every morning, to keep the piping clean. That’s now no longer necessary. The settings for the taps are easy to program with a smartphone or tablet using the app provided, which connects to the tap via Bluetooth®. All of the taps were set up as required by our practice and we have since found them to be a great help in our day-to-day work,” Dr Van Ongeval continues.

Saving water

The dental assistants are also very pleased with the new taps. “The instruments used by the dentist must always be sterile. After use, everything is placed in the sterilisation dish. But because the new taps are so easy to use, the tools are now also rinsed directly afterwards. The temperature and flow duration are just right – and because the tap switches off automatically, we also end up using a lot less water. These infrared-controlled taps with the SSC Bluetooth® module have really modernised our day-to-day work at the practice. Everything is more hygienic for patients, assistants and dentists alike. Apart from considerably improving our productivity, the reductions to our water consumption are also good for the environment. What more could you want?,” concludes Van Ongeval