Durability of bactericidal activity in electrolyzed neutral water by storage.

Electrolyzed strong and weak acid waters have been widely used for sterilization in clinical dentistry because of their excellent bactericidal activities. Electrolyzed neutral water was recently developed with a new concept of long-term good durability in addition to the excellent bactericidal activity similar to acid waters. The present study, evaluated the storage life of this water compared with the acid waters in terms of the changes in pH, oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), residual chlorine and bactericidal activity under several conditions using Staphylococcus aureus 209P. The strong acid water showed a rapid deterioration of its bactericidal activity. The weak acid and neutral waters exhibited excellent durability. Although all the bacteria were annihilated by the contact with the waters even stored for 40 days in the uncapped bottle, the neutral water was superior in further long-term duration.