How Low-Speed or Slow-Speed Dental Handpieces Work?
What is a Low (Slow) Speed Handpiece?
Low-Speed dental handpieces are handheld motors that spin at 50,000RPM or less. These tools can be used for removing caries, refining cavity preparations, and prophylaxis around the teeth to prevent tooth decay from coming back. Low-speed handpieces have straight attachments that use burs that can trim prosthetics after they’re put on.
How Fast Does a Low-Speed Handpiece Run?
- The speed depends upon the pressure (PSI) of the air supply, the configuration of the rotor components, and the gears inside the motor.
- The low-speed handpiece is designed to take on much more air pressure than the high-speed one, and its design allows for a wider range of dental procedures.
- You’ll find that a typical low-speed motor without gear reductions, running at 40 PSI should spin around 20,000 RPM.
- The gears on the handpiece allow for significantly more torque.
- The 5,000 RPM handpieces used for prophylaxis generally operate at low speeds.
- Endodontic and implant procedures use attachments to reduce the speed of rotation from 1,500 rpm or less. These attachments generate a high level of torque for optimal control.
How Does a Low-Speed Handpiece Work?
- Airline handsets are attached to the back end of dental handpieces which allows them to be similar to that of a high-speed handpiece.
- When air is introduced into the handpiece, it forces over a rotor with vanes or blades and makes them spin.
- The air moves around the rotor and is then forced out through the back-end exhaust port.
Some low-speed dental handpieces can be operated with both electric motors and air-driven motors; low speeds often refer to work performed under 150000 RPMs which makes them perfect if you want to keep dentistry as minimalistic as possible without sacrificing quality workmanship. Slow-speed handpieces usually have higher torque than their high-velocity counterparts so they’re better at getting out all those nasty pieces stuck between teeth. It is important to take care of these low-speed handpieces as this spells an investment for every dental practitioner.
Hayes Handpiece can be your dental handpiece maintenance and repair expert. We service, maintain, and repair all major high speed, low speed, surgical, implant, electric and endodontic handpieces such as:
A-dec | Beyes | Bien Air | Denticator | Hall | Henry Schein | Impact Air | Kavo | Lares Midwest | Morita | Nobel Biocare | Nouvag | NSK | Patterson | Schein Master
Shamrock | Star | Strauman | Stryker | W&H | Young
Hayes also offers dental instrument sharpening and re-tipping. Our experienced technicians have decades of experience working with the following brands:
American Eagle | HU Friedy | Nordent | PDT
For convenient in-office and virtual courses for you and your staff. Visit our links below for more details.
