Customized Logic Sets Make Your Day Simple
6/17/2008
So you’re sitting chair side ready to cut off an old crown with recurrent decay on number 3... or you’re ready to remove that old amalgam on number 31... or you’re ready to prepare a veneer on number 6… or you’re ready to prepare a Class II on number 28 and you reach for your first bur. Now you are thinking “what kind of lead-in is this for an article?”
Here’s my point. each procedure you begin prepping, why not use the same set up for your bur kits? Why pick and choose through your bur drawer and then re-choose as the procedure continues? Here is the actual scenario. You remove the old crown and there is recurrent decay. Do you have the correct slow speed round bur ready or do you have to re-open the drawer? When you re-open the drawer, are you removing your gloves so you do not contaminate the handle? If not, you are contaminating everything inside the drawer! Do you really think your gloves are dry? One drip of saliva or blood and there is an OSHA violation right there!
The proper technique is to remove your gloves, place new ones, use a sterile unopened cotton forceps and pluck out a new bur. Great, so you close the drawer, finish the decay removal; place your composite or glass ionomer core and now your ready to prep. Once again, your bur is not handy and either your assistant or you have to re-open that drawer and go through the same process. We are all guilty of opening those drawers and violating sterile concepts. The solution is simple and less time consuming from all aspects - USE A BUR KIT for all of your procedures.
We have been flooded with bur kits from every manufacturer. Kits for veneers, crowns, all ceramic crowns, gold inlays, porcelain onlays, the list goes on and on. Forget those and develop your own; one universal prep kit and one polish contour kit. Here’s why, let’s say you want to do any of the above procedures; you open your universal prep kit and there are all your burs. Each dentist probably uses the same 15 burs throughout their day, but each dentist likes their own... create your own Logic Set. It’s so easy... take out your prep burs for crown and bridge, your inlay and onlay burs, your 1 or 2 veneer burs, your fissurotomy burs, your gold and amalgam removal burs, throw in a 557 and your close to being done. Now, make 10 of these kits and sterilize them. The same goes for your polishing/contouring kits. Make custom logic sets for polishing your gold, composite, and porcelain restorations.
Customize your own blocks! When you are done with a procedure, your assistant will follow the standard protocol of sterilizing the entire block after you have individually cleansed the used burs. Burs that require replacement are replaced at this time and the assistant can easily keep your blocks ready to go. This makes ordering simple and more importantly it allows you to work efficiently and keep out of the drawer.
Dr. Graham and Littte are Co-founders of Dental Team Concepts and teach courses throughout the country on practical approach to successful clinical dentistry. For more information, call Erin at (773) 551-7971.