Discrepancies in bacterial recovery from dental unit water samples on R2A medium and a commercial sampling device

Monitoring the number of bacterial colony-forming units is an important step in assuring compliance with the recommendation that water from dental units contain <200 CFU mL(-1). Media that have been used for this purpose include R2A, a standard plate counting medium for water samples, and the Millipore HPC Sampler device, designed to facilitate sampling in dental offices. Discrepancies between the two media have been observed. This study tested the hypothesis that differences in counts on the two media were due to the failure of some bacteria to grow on the HPC sampler or to grow at less efficiency than on R2A. Of four different bacterial colony phenotypes tested in three independent experimental trials, one phenotype did not grow on the HPC device, and another grew inconsistently and at lower efficiency. These results confirmed the hypothesis. From these findings, users of the HPC sampler should be aware that microbial undercounts may occur.