Dental Handpieces Archives

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 [...]

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Prophy Handpieces

Most dental practices don’t put very much thought into the handpieces that the hygienist uses to polish teeth. In fact, often the hygienist is forced to use the same attachments that the rest of the office has; the latch angle slow speed. However, did you know that latch head slow speeds are an inappropriate choice [...]

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Fiber Optic Slow Speed Handpieces

With the rise in popularity, and now nearly universal acceptance of fiber optic high speed dental handpieces, more and more dentists are starting to complain about a lack of visibility when using a slow speed dental handpiece during trimming and polishing procedures.
Luckily, the solution to this already exists; fiber optic slow speed attachments and motors [...]

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Fiber Optics & Dental Handpieces

Fiber optic lighting was a major breakthrough in high speed dental handpieces when it was first introduced. By placing a glass fiber optic rod inside the handpiece, and an incandescent bulb in either the handpiece coupler or the handpiece tubing, manufacturers were able to shine light directly on the cutting area, dramatically improving visibility [...]

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Why You Should Have An Assistina

No, no, no – I am not asking you to hire a Dental Assistant called Tina!
On a serious note, it is a curious fact that so many dental offices leave the most basic of handpiece maintenance to chance. With current turbine replacement costs for some brands topping $550, not properly maintaining handpieces is like throwing [...]

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A Deeper Understanding of Slow Speed Dental Handpieces

Slow-speed motors (or low-speed motors) are one of the least maintained pieces of equipment in a dental office today. They are easy to forget about. They rarely break down, even when ignored for years.
Usually they are simply left connected to the handpiece tubing, wiped down between each patient, and reused. Because the motors rarely seem [...]

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Dentsply introduces the Stylus ATC

Dentsply Professional has an interesting new high speed handpiece on the market under the Midwest brand. Called the Stylus ATC (Adaptive Torque Control), it is being marketed as a hybrid air/electric handpiece.
What does that mean – hybrid air/electric?
Midwest’s marketing material says that the handpiece combines the small size, speed, and light weight of a traditional [...]

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Evaluating Dental Equipment Purchases

Dentistry is a professional career, but it does have one major thing in common with the trades – a reliance on the tools that are used.
In every stage of a dentist’s career, from student to associate to owner, a dentist will have to evaluate whether a certain piece of equipment meets their needs; that is, [...]

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Dental Delivery Systems : The Engine Of Dentistry

Dental Delivery Systems have come in many incarnations over the years, from small portable carts to elaborate built ins. Regardless of the style, they all serve one main function: regulating and controlling the delivery of three main things to the dental handpiece.
Those three things are: coolant water to prevent the tooth from overheating during cutting, [...]

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Dental Handpieces – How to select and care for new and used dental handpieces

Dental hand pieces are one of the most important tools of dental practices after the dental chair. They can be bought new or used. If they are bought used then they should be inspected to make sure that they are still in proper working condition.
Dental hand pieces tend to wear out fast due to regular [...]

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