At the center of the dental turbine unit is the spindle, this is the shaft that spins. Inside the spindle is the chuck, this is a hollow tube that holds the bur, which of course does the cutting. As you can see in the diagram, the chuck has little slits at the end. These slits allow the chuck to compress as it moves forward inside the spindle to grip the bur. On standard chuck handpieces the chuck is threaded (as is the inside of the spindle) and a bur wrench is used to rotate the chuck screwing it farther into the spindle and compressing the end. For autochuck dental handpieces (e.g. push button) the chuck is not threaded, but rather spring loaded and includes a mechanism that allows manipulation of the chuck forward or back to open and close the end to grip (or release) the bur. Placed on the middle (from front to back) of the spindle (it’s actually pressed in place) is the impeller this is what catches the air causing the turbine to spin. As you can see the spindle and impeller are fairly simple solid pieces of metal (usually stainless steel or aluminum) and thus, rarely fail. Chucks will occasionally fail as they can fracture where the slits are, but this is still relatively uncommon. On either side of the impeller are bearings. But aren’t those solid cylinders in the diagram? Bearings are little metal balls, aren’t they? Well, yes and no. Technically, what we have are bearing assemblies; these are what allow the turbine to spin (by reducing friction). Never run cold water over handpieces to achieve rapid cool downs after sterilization. Rapid cool downs could cause warping of handpiece components and you could also introduce contaminants onto your sterilized instruments. You should never run your handpieces without burs. Doing so could cause damage to the spindle/chuck assemblies. This is more important with standard chuck turbines. For autochuck handpieces (push button or lever) lubricate the chuck at least once a week to keep it clean and functioning well. Debris can clog the chuck and interfere with holding the bur. Related article : What's the difference between a typical dental scaler and an ultrasonic dental scaler ? What are the functions of different dental handpieces?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |