Dental drills

We have dental drills from Medidenta; they require about 100psi of (high pressure) air for drilling. The drills are operated via a foot pedal; a switch on the base station controls whether hand piece 1 or hand piece 2 is active. We also have an air spray attachment; the amount of pressure applied to the air spray button determines the pressure of air that is sprayed.

Notes about the compressed nitrogen source:

    • Turn on the nitrogen regulator only when you need it.

    • It is important to turn the nitrogen regulator OFF when the drill is not in use, just in case there are any leaks (we don't want a nitrogen-filled, small, enclosed room).

    • Notice that the nitrogen regulator for the dental drill should NOT be exchanged with the nitrogen regulator for the optical tables in the lab without a major adjustment in output pressure. The optical tables operate at much lower pressures (30-40psi) and the higher pressure of the drill regulator could damage the air table or at the very least make you wait a long time for the air to drain out before it can be leveled again.

We have friction grip (abbreviated FG in the industry) hand pieces with push button release. This means the drills accept carbide burs (the "drill bits" that actually do the cutting) of the friction grip type. To remove a bur, press the "button" on the top of the hand piece opposite the bur, and then use needle-nosed pliers to remove the bur (grab the shaft of the bur and pull out). You can add a new bur by inserting it with needle-nose pliers (again, grab the shaft of the bur but push it in).

Often we get burs from Midwest Dental. The most common one that people use (especially in Foster) is the round latch type LA 1/4, which is mfg part #389101 /Midwest part #120-0100.

We use burs from Medidenta as well:

The most common burs that people in the lab like to use are the ROUND, size 1 or 1/4 (part CBFG1 or CBFG1/4) (not sure which people like, when we order more we should order both sizes): http://medidenta.us/product_info.php?cPath=55_57_25&products_id=54

Sometimes we also use cross cut burs: CBFG701 is the right part number.

If the drills stop working due to poor spinning in the hand piece, we can order replacement turbines or have the hand pieces repaired.

Part needed to repair Henry Schein hand piece we got from Jenn's uncle:

Henry Schein spare turbine / friction grip holder part number: 102-4366