Is Your Dental Practice “Old School”?

Last week I was at the opening of a brand new dental office, and was asked a question about the proper lubrication of their new dental handpieces. I asked the dental assistant to bring me a handpiece so that I could demonstrate the proper procedure.

My jaw fell when she handed me the handpiece- it was a brand new handpiece with a wrench operated manual chuck.

This is inexcusable!

There is no reason in the world to skimp on what is arguably the most important tool in your entire office.

What is so wrong with those handpieces?

Well, of course wrench operated chucks technically work fine; they hold the bur, and have enough power to cut teeth. However, they are horribly inefficient. Changing or repositioning the bur requires that you fumble with a wrench, place it over the head and then twist the wrench around and around to open the chuck, then reverse the process to tighten the chuck again once the new bur is in place.

Lubrication and sterilization are also complicated. Ideally, no bur is in place when a handpiece is lubricated, because the spray of lubricant and the running of the handpiece are supposed to force debris out of the turbine through the chuck hole.

The problem is, wrench operated chucks are not supposed to be run without a bur in place (there is a chance that the chuck could open up and lock due to centrifugal force). This means that you cannot maintain the handpieces to the best standards. Once lubricated, you now have several pieces to sterilize: burs, handpiece, wrenches, making the job more complicated.

In the end, you don’t really save money. When you take into account the extra steps involved in the use of the handpiece, the fumbling to change burs, the extra parts involved, the time commitment is substantial. If you are seeing 6 to 8 patients a day, you will waste any initial cost savings over a push button handpiece very quickly.

If a budget is tight in an office, look at sites like this one for quality used dental handpieces. While the initial cost may be higher, the savings in the long run will be huge.