Handpiece & Burs Flyer - April-June 2022 - Email - 9

Ensuring a Long & Productive Life for
Your Practice's Essential Equipment
"
In a world with so many technological advancements, the
same things are happening with handpieces. Extensive
research, development and engineering are constantly
occurring behind the scenes to bring the
best quality, highest performing and longest lasting
handpieces and equipment to the industry.
- Cameron Longacre
Technical Services Supervisor at ProRepair
To avoid these common cleaning mistakes, it's important to follow the
specific maintenance recommendations for your particular handpiece.
Most air-driven and electric-driven handpieces have the same
maintenance requirements, but you may need different adapters for each
to properly lubricate them. Corded and cordless electric handpieces will
have different maintenance procedures depending on what they are
used for - for instance, if they are laboratory handpieces or surgical or
hygiene handpieces. It's always best to refer to the instructions for your
particular piece of equipment.
WHEN IT'S TIME TO REPAIR
Of course, even the best-maintained equipment will fail sometimes, so
it's important to know how to troubleshoot when you run into a problem
and to distinguish between issues that can be solved in the office and
those that require sending your equipment to a supplier for a fix.
One common sign that something isn't right is a change in the sound the
handpiece makes when operating. This can range from a subtle shift in
frequency to an unmistakable (and quite unpleasant) squeal. First, check
if a damaged bur is the cause, in which case you may be able to replace
it with a fresh bur and be just fine. If that doesn't fix things, though,
it's probably time to call a repair service like Henry Schein Dental's
ProRepair and speak to a technician. They can help you diagnose the
problem over the phone or let you know if you need to send the piece
in for repair.
A noticeable decline in instrument performance is another sign you
might need to get your handpiece checked out, along with complete
instrument failure - though, in these cases, you might want to check
your plugs and couplings first. Mr. Longacre says he has encountered
situations where what looks to be a handpiece problem is actually
something else entirely. For instance, one customer thought their
handpiece was broken because they weren't getting any water flow
through it. It turned out that the bottle the instrument pulled water from
was empty, but no one realized it. In another instance, the handpiece
light wasn't working, but there was nothing wrong with the handpiece
itself - the power supply to the light had gone out.
The lifespan of a handpiece depends on the intensity of use, but with
proper maintenance, a typical office should be able to get five to six
years out of a handpiece. Of course, there are outliers. Mr. Longacre
says he recently dealt with an office that still had multiple handpieces in
use after more than 25 years. " It's a real testament to their maintenance
protocols, " he says.
For older handpieces, repairs aren't always possible, given that many
parts may no longer be available. New equipment, on the other hand,
can almost always be repaired, but at a certain point the cost of those
repairs might outweigh the price of just buying something new. And,
as Mr. Longacre notes, there is always something new. He cited as
one example the development of new single-use aerosol evacuators
designed to reduce the aerosols produced by handpieces during
procedures - an issue that has come to the fore during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
CONCLUSION
Because handpieces are so essential to dental practices, it's important
to take care of them properly. Doing so will lower your operating
costs and extend the life of your instruments. But, even the bestmaintained
handpieces will eventually need some repairs. Whether it's
something that you can handle in-house or a problem that requires
sending out for work, the experts at Henry Schein Dental's ProRepair
can help you every step of the way.
"
To learn more about Henry Schein Dental's ProRepair services
for handpiece equipment, visit: www.prorepair.com
To save up to 15% and learn more about handpieces that deliver, visit: www.henryscheindental.com/handpiece15
USE PROMO CODE TG8 WHEN ORDERING
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Handpiece & Burs Flyer - April-June 2022 - Email

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