Brasseler Diamond
In her practice, Dr. Brady worked toward more efficient veneers by implementing an improved process for maintaining multi-use diamonds. For this final Veneer Month post, she details the steps she takes to less dull burs.
In the previous blog, I wrote about why it’s critical to decrease the potential for dull burs if you want to increase efficiency.
Personally, I don’t find much value to single-use diamonds, simply because of their lower-quality and the fact that I have to replace them so often.
But I still found I needed a better procedure for maintaining my chosen tool: the multi-use diamond. Better quality, unfortunately, still results in the unexpected dull bur every once in a while. With some advice, I discovered a process that keeps them ready for complex procedures.
How to Preserve Multi-Use Diamonds
There is some time that needs to be invested, especially at the outset, when creating a new process in the practice. The first change I made was to buy pumice stones for each operatory that could be used to maintain the multi-use diamonds.
I also made sure that at the end of procedures, my assistants run used diamonds through the pumice stone as a way of ridding them of the debris that accumulates over time. This one step has done wonders for improving their lasting quality.
The next two steps to take are to change your sterilization system and to be more economical about how many burs you end up needing to sterilize. Cold sterilization ruins diamonds, so I switched over to bagging and autoclaving them.
Heat sterilization isn’t a perfect solution, though, so you must simultaneously ensure that only the burs/bur blocks that are absolutely necessary are put out. Otherwise, you end up having to sterilize ones you never use. Save time and achieve more efficient veneers.