The Process for Dental Handpiece Repairs on Fiber Optics

The dental handpiece is totally stripped, cleaned, and new bundles or rods are built in. If a general overhaul, including bearings, seals, etc is requested by you when we receive the handpiece, then a reduction of $40.00 will be applied to the usual overhaul cost. If while the piece is being assembled the technician advises that an overhaul should indeed be done, then you will receive a call, the situation will be outlined for your instructions. The same $40.00 discount in the overhaul cost will be applied.

Where does the damage to your handpiece optics come from? The Primary causes are:

• debris that is blown back into the tail-end by the exhaust air, which chips the surface of the optics in the optic input port: and more so: the debritis in the working area, chipping the surface of external ports.
• adhering debris that is left on the ports (both front-end and backend) prior to the sterilization process, which is then baked on as a hard film during sterilization.
• drops to hard surfaces or hard bumps against solid objects.

Dental Handpiece Optics Maintenance

There is a need for continuous optical preventative maintenance that can be done by your CDA or other person responsible for your handpiece maintenance. Unfortunately, chip-debris is unavoidable: it's the nature of the beast that the asperated debris is exhausted in part through the back-end, and the 'field' debris beats on the front ports. That debris contains sharp-edged particles. It will, over time, change the fine clear surface of the port to resemble the surface of the moon, and reduce the amount of light entering/exiting the ports.

The single most productive maintenance tip that we can give you for your optics is to clean your optic ports prior to sterilization of the handpiece. This is because build-up of debris on the ports occurs, then is 'baked' on in the heat process. A proven preventative is to take a cotton swab, dipped in alcohol, and wipe the ports (back and front ends) clean: AFTER lubrication and PRIOR to sterilization. Done regularly, this will extend the useful life of the optics considerably.

A second tip would be to advise your personnel to be more gentle with the newer optics that use fiber-optic rods rather than stranded bundles. The most common problem with them is outright breakage. Unlike the stranded bundles, the rods are fragile, and are susceptible to breakage due to dropping or even hard bumps. Bear in mind that although bundles are more resilient, they also are susceptible to movement breakage: the same as if a stranded wire is repeatedly bent. Eventually, the movement causes breakage, although usually a strand at a time, and a slow degradation of the optic quality occurs.

Dental handpiece repairs of this nature are common, and certainly save you money in the long term: but a little prevention goes a long way toward saving costs.