Handpiece Essentials: Knowledge to Help You Maximize Your Tools

Electric vs. Air

Electric vs. Air From our international perspective at Adec, we're able to observe an interesting contrast in regional preferences for handpieces. Because most American dentists are trained with airdriven handpieces, while many

European dentists work more with electric handpieces, we see many instances where transitioning from one to the other is a real challenge. I have seen many American dentists try to use an electric handpiece with the same technique they use with an air-driven, only to be frustrated.

The fact is both air driven and electric handpieces are important to have in a modern operatory, but they require

very different techniques, and each tool lends itself to different applications. Because of its consistent power and

the fact that it uses a gear train to deliver rotation through a chuck, an electric handpiece is excellent for creating very precise, smooth margins that help reduce the risk of microleakage. On the other hand, an air-driven

handpiece has the advantage of offering a great tactile feel that is important in applications such as caries removal. When dealing with a softened carious lesion, being too heavy handed with a handpiece can result in unnecessary removal of healthy tissue, so a strong tactile feel is especially important. These examples illustrate why it is important for dentists to have both types of handpieces in the operatory, and to be skilled in the use of each.