Your dental handpiece is the center of your dental practice. How do you select the one that’s right for your practice? Speed and precision are two things that you should look for in a handpiece.

You’ll want to see what the workflow of your practice is, and how the handpiece functionality will fit into that rhythm. There’s two main types of handpieces: turbine and electric. Both give dentists and their patients exceptional results. The choice really has to do with your own team’s training, work style, and needs.

Traditional handpieces use an air-driven turbine to facilitate the rotators. These have a lighter weight and a skinny design, making them easy to work with. While turbine handpieces have many advantages, they can also cause higher levels of “noise” as the handpiece ages and the bearings wear down.

High speed handpieces are also known as drills in the dental world. This tool is a power-driven tool that has speeds of 400,000 rpm and up. The drill is of course used to drill holes for fillings and assist in other types of dental work like polishing dental trays for dentures.

Low speed handpieces rotate at reduced speeds somewhere between 0 and 80,000 rpm, depending upon the make and model. These handpieces are equipped with a speed control ring, allowing you as the user to control the speed of the ring manually.

Electrical handpieces operate at both high and low speeds. This makes them versatile for all kinds of procedures. Instead of bearings, this handpiece has gears instead of bearings. These handpieces are quieter due to the fact that air is not flowing through them for power.

Through the years, handpieces have gradually been redesigned and upgraded to become the highly accurate and sophisticated tools they are today. Technological advances continue to improve these indispensable instruments. The better your handpiece, the smoother the day-to-day operation of your dental practice will be.