In the field of dentistry, technological advances have revolutionized the equipment and instruments used in daily practice. Among the most innovative instruments is the dental turbine, an essential device that offers significant advantages in terms of accuracy, speed and convenience for both dentists and patients.
What is the Dental Turbine?
The dental turbine is a high-speed pneumatic instrument used primarily for tooth processing procedures such as removing cavities or preparing for fillings.
This device operates on an air or water turbine, generating considerable speeds, allowing the dentist to perform procedures faster and more efficiently.
Importance of the Dental Turbine
Efficiency and Speed: A defining feature of the dental turbine is its high rotational speed. This allows the dentist to perform procedures with precision and reduce the time required for certain procedures, increasing the efficiency of treatment.
Patient Comfort: Due to the increased working speed, dental procedures become shorter, which helps reduce patient discomfort and anxiety. Modern dental turbines are also designed to minimize noise and vibration, increasing patient comfort during treatments.
Precision and Control: The dental turbine gives the dentist more precise control over procedures. Specific milling heads allow for detailed and fine machining, helping to preserve as much healthy tooth structure as possible.
Diversity of Applications: The dental turbine is versatile and can be used in a variety of procedures, including cavity preparation, plaque removal and endodontic procedures.
Advanced Dental Turbine Performance
In the context of modern dental instruments, dental turbines have continually evolved, incorporating advanced technologies. These include built-in LED lighting systems for improved visibility, high performance bearings for durability and ergonomic design for long-term dentist comfort.
Dentistry uses instruments and materials designed to preserve or restore the health of oral structures.
The variety of instruments is designed to model as closely as possible the original appearance of the teeth.
Whether one opts for direct restoration, by the dentist in the office, using materials with adhesive properties, or indirect methods, with the intervention of the dental laboratory in making the prosthetic parts, the initial step is to prepare the tooth surfaces.
This preparation of the teeth for the application of fillings or prosthetic parts is carried out with the help of turbines, to which cutters of different sizes and shapes are adapted, suitable for each clinical situation.
The dental turbine is a hand-held device that develops high speeds at high revolutions, from 40,000 to 300,000 revolutions per minute, driven by air generated by a compressor.
The turbine is used in almost all dental operations and is indispensable for the therapeutic procedure and cannot be completely replaced by any other instrument.
Use
Treatment of caries – when we want to create access to the cavity, we use the dental turbine to which we attach drills of an appropriate diameter to allow us good visibility. With the turbine we remove the enamel affected by the caries and gradually approach the infected dentine.
Preparing teeth for the application of prosthetic parts – inlays or crowns are parts made with the help of the dental technician’s laboratory that are applied to teeth that have already been prepared.
In the case of inlays, the walls must allow for easy insertion of the inlay and have walls as parallel as possible to promote stability.
In the case of crown preparation, the tooth will have the same shape, only reduced in size.
The amount of material removed by the milling cutters will be replaced by the crown.
Depending on the material the crown is made of, a certain amount of enamel will be removed from the tooth.
Replacing fillings – crown fillings must be replaced in certain situations. For example, when clinically, or radiologically, secondary caries or relapses are detected, the cavity should be removed, cleaned and the filling restored.
Also, in case of damage by cracking or fracture of the filling, it is necessary to replace the filling or to clinically reassess it in order to opt for another treatment solution.
Opening the pulp chamber in teeth requiring endodontic treatment – in order to perform endodontic treatment, it is necessary to create access to the pulp chamber by drilling the tooth.
The success of endodontic treatment is influenced by the quality of the access and the degree of visibility we achieve in order to remove the dental pulp from the canals.
Root separation in extractions – when we have a tooth that needs to be extracted and the roots are very thin, curved and at risk of fracturing, it is necessary and useful to section the roots and extract them one at a time,
The turbine, even if it is unpleasant for the patient because of the noise it produces but also because of the water spray, is indispensable in performing correct dental treatments.
Conclusion
The dental turbine is a key element in the modern dentist’s arsenal, bringing significant benefits both in terms of quality of treatment and patient comfort. The continued evolution of these instruments ensures that dentistry remains at the forefront of technological innovation, helping to improve the patient experience and the efficiency of dentists’ practice.
