How often should you fully restore your dental handpiece?
A full rebuild of a dental handpiece means that all the parts in the handpiece are replaced. In this case you would be replacing the turbine, including the spindle, impeller and chuck, the bearings, o-rings and washers, as well as clean the handpiece, oil it and test it to ensure proper function after the restoration is complete. This usually happens once you start noticing a decrease in performance of the handpiece, such as bur wobble / bearing gone bad, and a full inspection proves the need for entire restoration of the handpiece.
Often times an inspection of a handpiece will be performed and we find that replacement of individual parts are recommended and performed, versus performing a complete rebuild. An example of this would be a concentricity test, which verifies circularity and straightness of the bur coming from the spindle. If the bur is wobbling while performing a procedure, it can cause vibrations in the handpiece and cause pre-mature bearing failure. This test will help us determine the need to replace the turbine.
Maintenance of a dental handpiece, however, should be carried out after each use to make sure that there are no underlying problems that could affect its future performance, or lead to expensive repairs. Besides the costs that would be incurred if the handpiece needs to be repaired through lack of maintenance, there is also the inconvenience of having this piece of equipment out of action. Maintenance of dental handpieces, therefore, should be viewed as an important part of a dental practice’s routine.
If you are noticing a lack of performance in your dental drill, call me today at 1-800-569-5245 with any questions. I also offer free shipping so you can mail your hand piece to me for inspection and a free estimate. Thank you for considering me as your Dental Handpiece Repair Guy!
