Maintaining your handpiece is extremely important to keep it performing at its best ability for you and your patients. ProRepair is here to provide you with 10 steps to make sure your handpiece is ready for its next use.
1. Take your paper towel and run it under warm water. Wash it over the exterior of the handpiece to get off any type of buildup that might have gone onto the handpiece during use. If you have a handpiece with grooves like the image below, take a toothbrush and brush it over the grooves to remove any buildup that might be stuck inside.
TIP : You do not want to use any type of disinfectant or any type of wipe that has alcohol in it on the exterior of the handpiece. Those types of cleaning supplies have corrosive agents in them which can cause damage to the airline or water line. Once those lines are cracked, the handpiece will be deemed unrepairable.
2. Find your drive line: The drive line is the smaller of the two holes on the back end of the handpiece (see image below).
3. Once you find your drive line, you are going to take 15 drops of dropper-style lubricant and drop them into the drive line OR, if you have a spray can, spray it for 2–3 seconds into the drive line.
4. Now, take your handpiece back to your station and hook it up to your tubing.
5. Run the handpiece over a paper towel and make sure that all of the lubricant that you just put inside the handpiece comes out. Repeat until all of the lubricant is coming out clear.
TIP : You do not want to use any type of disinfectant or any type of wipe that has alcohol in it on the exterior of the handpiece. Those types of cleaning supplies have corrosive agents in them which can cause damage to the airline or the water line. Once those lines are cracked, the handpiece will be deemed unrepairable.
6. Take the handpiece, remove the bur, and place it inside the sterilizer.
7. Let the handpiece sit in the sterilizer for the full sterilization cycle.
8. Once the handpiece is done, remove it from the sterilizer and let the handpiece cool off naturally – DO NOT run the handpiece under water to make it cool off faster. If water gets inside the handpiece, it will cause rust. Once rust is formed, the handpiece is unrepairable.
TIP : Be careful when removing the handpiece from the sterilizer because it is going to be warm. Warm metal is compromised metal and if you drop it, it will cause the handpiece to dent. Once there is a dent on the exterior of the handpiece head, it does cause the turbine to run improperly which will make the handpiece be deemed unrepaired. You just want to make sure it cools off naturally.
9. Now that your handpiece is sterilized, take your lubricant and add it into the driveline. You are going to take 15 drops of dropper-style lubricant and drop them into the drive line OR, if you have a spray can, spray it for 2-3 seconds into the drive line.
10. Run the handpiece over a paper towel to make sure that the turbine is lubricated and there is no friction. Once you see that the lubricant come out, the handpiece is ready to use on a patient!
If you need to purchase any of the products used above or have any questions, call your Henry Schein Sales Specialist today at 1-800-367-3674 x 7.