Feeling the Whirr When the Dental Drill Hits

Ever sat down on the chair at your dental practice and saw a small handheld device that had a number of attachments in a nearby box? The device is a dental rotary drill and the attachments are simply known as dental burs, rotary file bits that are made for various purposes in a specific field. When you feeling something that hits your teeth when the dentist uses the drill, that’s the burr doing the work.

Each burr, which may be no longer than the front third of any of your fingers, has three parts – the head, the neck, and shank. The head contains the main parts that come into contact with the subject surface. The neck is the support arm while the shank is the main “driveshaft” linking the entire burr to the drill. The item is fundamentally the same as those used in household rotary drill tool sets. When a dentist needs to replace one bur with another, a small clamp or the bur changer is used to lock it in.  

Burrs come in multiple shapes and sizes, all based on various preferences set by the dentist himself. They include pointed heads, which come in coarse or extra coarse. However, the vast number of drill bits is so mind-boggling, that the International Organization for Standardization has stepped in to properly catalog them by number and design. 

Diamond Burs are a Dentist's Best Friend

Although burs can be seen in workshops, they're more common close to the dentist's chair. The burs are abrasive enough to gently file the teeth to prepare for certain dental procedures such as fitting the crown or preparing the cavity for filling. Traditionally, the dentist's arsenal includes carbide dental burs; however, there's a growing market for the harder and more cutting-edge diamond-tipped burs. As burs keep the process of getting rid of harmful deposits from the teeth short, the job is even shorter with diamonds.

With proper care, teeth are actually harder to cut through than you think. The full set of chompers have evolved to resist chewing after chewing, making them among the hardest bones in the human body. The job of cutting through teeth gets even more difficult with amalgams and composite resins present in patients that had their teeth filled in the past. Diamond-tipped burs, for all their hardness, can cut through enamel and dentin, as well as artificial fillings, with ease.

While more expensive than traditional burs, diamond burs last longer, especially with proper care and use. This makes replacements less frequent, making diamond burs a more economical choice for a number of dentists. Plating burs with diamonds also enables burs to be smaller, allowing for precision cutting and filing.