2 Reasons Why Your Burs Might Get Stuck in Your High-Speed Handpiece

Among the list of most common problems encountered by our technicians, one of the most common is certainly that burs are getting stuck in the high-speed drill. Have you, or one of your team members, ever experienced this problem? It can be very frustrating especially when you have dental cases scheduled.

There are 2 ways to avoid this situation in the future:

1. Lubrification

Lubricating the high-speed handpiece is essential to ensure that it is kept in optimum condition. Your high-speed handpiece should be lubricated after every use and after every 15 minutes of use. A high-speed handpiece that lacks lubricant is irrevocable and will be damaged forever.

Why? Because without lubrication, the drill chuck of your high-speed handpiece will have more and more difficult to open, making it more difficult to remove the burs over time.

High-speed

1. Drops of oil here – daily.

2. Drops of oil here – before and after autoclaving cycle (or according to manufacture). Lubricate the high-speed handpieces daily on the smaller of the two large holes.

3. Oil after every 15 minutes of use.

4. Do not leave levers open.

5. Daily lubricate chuck.

2. The burs are not changed frequently enough

When the burs reach the end of their useful life, you likely tend to apply more power on the handpiece to drill the teeth. The extra pressure on the drill can bend the burs and/or damage the chuck of the drill.

Bending the burs will give you a harder time to remove the burs from the drill and as of result, it will eventually get stuck in the head of the drill. The extra pressure on the handpiece can bend the handpiece and/or damage the handpiece.

At your next dental appointment, be sure to lubricate your handpiece and change your burs frequently to avoid wasting time and money, not to mention the frustration it generates!

Finally, if you and your team are performing more and more dental work per week, we recommend that you purchase an additional high-speed handpiece to avoid any downtime due to breakage.

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