Innovative grill of the dentists’ drill!

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Fundamental requirement in today’s dental practice is a hand-held high-speed rotary device called an airotor handpiece. Be it any sort of tooth reduction, shaping, cleaning or polishing, handpiece plays an important and indispensable role. Ever since handpieces came into existence, they have been going through continuous upgradation and redesigning to improve its efficiency and usability. Earlier the pulley-driven handpieces could offer only 6000rpm of speed. The key requirement to upgrade the experience both for the patients and for the practitioners was to have a handpiece with higher speed along with least vibration and heat control. The air turbine handpiece, known to us as the airotor, was developed in 1957 by John Borden of Washington, D.C. which could reach bur speed up to 250,000 rpm. The patented Borden airotor was carrying 40 times more speed than the pulley-driven airotor and brought a marked difference to the world of dentistry. This mighty change reframed the equation of time and effort required for most of the dental procedures.

Today’s handpieces are an advanced and sophisticated combination of high speed and efficiency. The process to lessen the time consumption and patient’s discomfort has been continuous and consistent until today. With exemplary growth in technology, dental armamentarium too has changed and grown exponentially.

Electric handpiece

Besides the most common air-driven handpieces, an electric handpiece is another impeccable choice available. Although both have their own benefits so mostly it is not a matter of choice between these, it is more of a selection factor rather. Knowing the impact of both varieties, clinician may decide which one to opt for a particular case. Most notable feature of an electric handpiece which sets it way ahead of a conventional air-driven handpiece is its versatility and ability to be customized. Other benefits include less bur chattering, constant torque, specific rpm and automated control panel. Speed required as per the dental process can be pre-set in the control panel. Furthermore, an electric handpiece offers different contra-angles needed for different procedures like impactions, rotary endodontic procedures, implant placements or other surgical interventions.

Since technological innovations remain in process, electric handpieces have also evolved with more advanced features. Certain models of electric handpieces provide the option of changing the torque and automatic reverse feature too. Due to such characteristics, chances of unpredictable errors get reduced to negligible with electric handpieces.

Only factor which becomes a concern for any dental set-up to have an electric handpiece is its cost as it is more expensive than the air-driven handpiece.

Fibreoptics

Biggest challenge in working in an oral cavity is accessibility. Now it is common to have dental instruments with inbuilt light emission feature. Dental handpieces with this feature provide illumination in the working area and therefore making the experience much more comfortable and effective. Along with the water spray these also emit fibre-optic light to facilitate working. The over-head light in the dental chair is not always sufficient to work with precision. Moreover, presence of saliva and blood in the oral cavity and water from the handpiece further restricts visibility. Emission of light right from the head of the headpiece into the working area makes the task much easier.

Interestingly, integration of LED light in a handpiece has also evolved further. Now a few manufacturers have come up with multiple LEDs in the head of the instrument which delivers excellent shadowless light along with accuracy of colour in case of cosmetic procedures.

Dentists may try well-known brands offering LED light such as – Click here

Self-Lubricating handpiece

Maintenance-free airotor handpieces feature a lifetime lubrication. These self-lubricate when exposed to high temperatures and high-pressure steam in autoclave. These also eliminate the incidents wherein oil or lubricant leaks out from the handpiece during a procedure. Besides the mess, released material might also hinder with the efficacy of restoration material or adhesive while doing a cavity preparation.

These not only save the cost of lubricants and cleaners but also saves time and energy put into the continuous maintenance process. It is also possible to replace conventional bearings with the maintenance-free bearings to upgrade the handpiece.

Maintenance-free handpiece is a significant advancement in the world of dentistry as it lets clinicians have a hassle-free clinical experience. These are also cost-effective and also saves lubrication and cleaning time.

Multiple sprays

As it is known that air and water spray is extremely important during any tooth reduction procedure so as to control over-heating and eventual impact on the pulp. Air and water spray also help in removing the unwanted debris from the site for unobstructed. Innovation of multiple spray ports in dental handpieces has greatly increased the efficiency and vision during dental procedures.

Single spray system is not as efficient as multiple spray system as it provides limited cooling to the working area and might not reach the site due to adjacent tooth blocking its path. Multiple nozzles ensure sufficient cooling of the treated area even if an adjacent tooth is blocking one of the spray ports. Studies have proven better cutting efficiency of the burs and lower temperature of the oral site when multiple spray high-speed handpiece is used.

Multiple spray feature is offered in brands like – Click here

Mini Head

While working on posterior-most teeth and surround structures, mini head headpieces have proved to be an exemplary development. These handpieces run effectively in high speed even in less working height. The smaller the head of the handpiece the better the access and visibility of the treatment site. Buyer must consider the height of the head and also the working height after bur is placed in the handpiece. These also become a dire need for patients with limited mouth opening. Bur size in mini-head handpieces usually range between Φ1.59-1.600mm.

Most known preferred brands in mini-head airotor handpiece are – Click here

Disposable handpiece

Sterilization is the foremost necessity in the field of dentistry. Therefore, any method or means is applied and implemented to achieve asepsis and minimize source of infection. Any disinfection or sterilization method could still leave chances of microbes during the process, hence use of disposable products is always preferable both by clinician and by the patient. With growing technology, even handpieces are available which could be limited to a single patient or procedure.

If cost is not a major concern, then disposable handpieces can be a good option to eliminate occurrence of infection via handpiece. Different options available in disposable airotors are – Click here

Anti-retraction

A conventional high-speed air turbine handpiece gets cross-contamination from saliva and blood as it stops rotating inside the oral cavity. This process of drawing in of external air and other components is termed as suck-back phenomenon. The contaminants may reach until the tubing of handpiece and therefore creating a major possibility of infection when run again in other patients. Anti-retraction airotor handpiece become a preferred choice of most of the clinicians today as it has such valve and seal which minimize the contaminants from getting inside the handpiece.

Anti-retraction feature has attracted many manufacturers and several options are available to be chosen from. For example: Click here

Technology and innovation are making life easier in tremendous ways. Just the way mobile phones transformed the way we communicate today but improvements have been a part of the invention till date and after, high speed airotor handpiece too remarkably changed the face of clinical dentistry but refinement continues.

A wisely selected handpiece and dental surgeon’s clinical expertise can do wonders. It is always better to have options available and select as per the procedure. Upgradation in dental armamentarium is an ongoing process and dentists must keep trying novel features. Every time one thinks of buying a new handpiece, look out for better and innovative designs available.

Today we are benefitted with enormous upgradations in this magnificent machine but tomorrow we all would be surely even more surprised how much simpler things have gotten for dentists and their patients.

Technology is meant to make life easier, so it must.

Embrace the furtherance!