6 Tips to Make Dental Handpieces Last Longer

Dental handpieces are essential to any practice, so performing daily or weekly maintenance is a cost effective way to ensure they have a long life. A poorly functioning handpiece causes stress for the clinician, a poor experience for the patient, and the potential for lost productivity for the practice. While most dentists and dental hygienists probably believe they know what they need to know to make dental handpieces last longer, data from handpiece technicians paints a different story.

According to these specialists, most of the failure they see could have been prevented through a proper protocol of daily or weekly maintenance that only takes a few minutes. Here are 6 tips to make dental handpieces last longer:

  • The air pressure should not exceed 35 RPM’s. Increasing the air pressure will not increase handpiece performance and may prove detrimental to the turbine.
  • The handpiece should be operated only with the bur securely in place.
  • Do not autoclave the handpiece, nosecone or latchhead with the bur in place.
  • Remove the bur before sterilizing. There may be corrosive reaction between different metallic surfaces, resulting in damage.
  • After handpieces and /or components are removed from the autoclave they should be allowed to return to the ambient room temperature before use. Do not use cold water.
  • Before autoclaving, clean and flush the handpiece. After autoclave, lube and flush.
  • Cleaner / lubricate is sprayed or dropped ONLY into the DRIVE AIR HOLE which leads to the turbine (see below image).

dental_handpiece_crosssection

We hope that this helped you understand ways to make dental handpieces last longer.

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