Bur Systems: The Key To Efficiency

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One of my goals in practice is to increase my efficiency and effectiveness during restorative procedures. A key ingredient in accomplishing this has been creating my own bur systems that are customized by procedure. So many dental offices I visit have a draw of burs behind the dentists, blocks full of randomly organized burs from front to back. How many times during a procedure are you looking for a different bur, or sending your assistant to find one? If the answer is even once you have lost productive time.  My goals are clear-cut. I want to have every bur I need for a given procedure out in a block on my side of the patient. Second, a bur goes into the handpiece one time only. It goes in, is used to completion, and when it goes back into the block it means I am done with it for the remainder of the procedure. It is also grossly inefficient to keep putting the same bur in and out of the handpiece. This means that if I am doing multiple teeth, all of the occlusal depth cuts are done at the same time. Next, the occlusal reduction is completed. Third step, all of the labial and lingual depth cuts are completed, and so on.

Provisional Block

Whether you decide to use a bur kit that was created by someone else, and is a system of burs you have learned and adopted, or create your own, the result is the same, increased efficiency and effectiveness. All of the bur companies are happy to create custom bur blocks for you. I have personally partnered with Brasseler to create mine. My rep and I sat down and worked out all of the burs I use for different procedures. This does take some thought on the front end, in order to save an incredible amount of time procedure after procedure. The blocks can be engraved with your name and the type of procedure. In our office we have specific blocks for composite, indirect restorations, provisionals and more. When I use a bur during a procedure if it is dull I remove it and place it on the assistant’s side. If I return it to the doctor’s side it needs to be cleaned and returned to the block to be used again int he future.