Follow These Best Practices for Best Results with Your Handpieces
For any dental office, buying a good quality handpiece is important. However, even the best equipment will not perform at its best unless it is given proper maintenance. These drills require even more regular check-ups than most dental patients do!
Where to Start?
Since dental handpieces require regular maintenance, start by setting up a schedule to help you get in the habit of giving your pieces a check-up. These tools are an investment, and should be looked after properly in order to get the most out them. You can set up daily and weekly reminders for maintenance and cleaning.
Beware of Chemicals
Try to stay away from caustic chemicals. If you are in a hurry and just want to wipe a drill down with one of these cleaning agents, consider how harmful the chemicals will be for your dental handpieces. Over time these chemicals will cause major problems and could even cause enough damage to force repairs or replacement. Check the manufacturer’s suggestions for cleaning and build that into your maintenance schedule. If something still goes wrong with your handpiece while it is under warranty, you will have a better chance of having repair or replacement covered by that warranty if you have not used a harmful chemical to clean it.
Make Sure It’s Dry
Sterilizers do a great job of cleaning, but if for any reason the drying cycle does not finish, the drills may still be wet and start to rust. Make sure your sterilizing equipment is working properly, and that every dental handpiece is left dry at the end of the day.
Oil, Oil, Oil!
The importance of oiling your dental handpieces cannot be stressed enough. If you want to get the best performance out of your handpieces, you must oil them after each use. Do not wait until the end of the day or even the middle of the day to do this crucial maintenance.
Repair Right Away
It can be tempting to keep using a handpiece that needs repair but is still able to do the job. However, for optimal performance, any necessary repairs should not wait. Using a handpiece that needs to be fixed can make a small problem much bigger and even result in having to replace the piece.
Sometimes a repair looks simple enough to try fixing the handpiece in the office. These instruments require precision and skill to fix and a professional should handle any repairs, no matter how simplistic. If anything were to go wrong with a DIY solution, it would also void your warranty.
Find What Works and Stick To It
If you want your dental handpieces to always give you their best, you have to return the favour and treat them well. Find a schedule and cleaning agents that suits you, your staff, and the manufacturers’ guidelines and stick to what works.
