Doug Kase
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 ELLO
AGAIN, my loyal readers. Since my last “Tales” about adding a reciprocating
handpiece into the SafeSiders® technique, I have had the opportunity
to use a handpiece manufactured by Medidenta and NSK (Figure 1). It is
a standard four-hole air motor (Meditorque America “E” type Air Motor)
with an “E” attachment to which the NSK sheath (Model E4R) and NSK head
(Model TEP-Y) are attached.
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| FIGURE 1: The Medidenta
handpiece consists of, left to right, an NSK head, an NSK sheath, and a
Meditorque America air motor. |
The Medidenta engine has plenty of torque and operates at 20,000
rpm; however with a 4:1 reduction in the sheath, the contra-angle is operating
at 5,000 rpm.
The instrument latch button is very easy to use
and opening it to change SafeSiders endodontic instruments in rapid succession
requires little effort. Its smaller head facilitates ease of use in tight
posterior areas where limited jaw opening or tooth angulations could create
limitations. This flexibility is also particularly useful when in certain
circumstances an instrument must be placed into a canal by hand due to
dilacerations or extreme apical curvatures. This small-headed handpiece
can then be placed easily onto the inserted instrument and activated.
The NSK Head will reciprocate through a full arc
of 90 degrees, 45 degrees in either direction from neutral center. The
SafeSiders technique recommends using the handpiece at about 2,000 rpm;
however, I have been using it at full speed (5,000 rpm) and it works great!
Instrumentation with instruments from #25 to #40 proceeds with little effort.
The use of the NiTi SafeSiders instruments is equally as easy, and the
handpiece eliminates any hand fatigue that you may have experienced, especially
after a long day of dentistry. I have also found that in cases that
are difficult to instrument due to calcifications or just harder dentin,
the reciprocating motion in combination with small-diameter instruments,
such as #08 and #10, works equally as well. In general, when it comes to
reciprocation it is almost impossible to distort an instrument. The 45
degree reciprocating arc it travels never allows the instrument to meet
severe distortional resistance; thus there is no instrument deformation.
This fact is even more important while using the NiTi instruments.
So, in closing, I have to give this product a great
review, five out of five stars. I advise all practitioners who are
using SafeSiders to add this to their technique. And as I said in my last
article to all you rotary guys, if the only reason you are staying with
rotary is that you want a handpiece to ease hand fatigue, then you don’t
have an excuse any more. Try it, you’ll like it! Just a note: EDS
will also be selling a version of this reciprocating handpiece in the future,
so keep checking in. So with that in mind here are . . .
Dr. Kase’s Top 10 Reasons He
Loves Reciprocation
# 10 The myths your mother told you are wrong. . . . You don’t really
go blind! Ooops, hold on, that’s something else. Let me continue.
# 9 Because it works!
# 8 Less operator hand fatigue.
# 7 Ease of instrumentation in tight anatomical access to posterior
teeth or distally angled teeth.
# 6 Because it allows more rapid instrumentation of calcified canals.
# 5 Reciprocation makes it easier to penetrate and remove old gutta
percha with less solvent when retreating a case.
# 4 It’s much less expensive than rotary crown down and quicker = less
chair time = more productivity.
# 3 Less chair time = a happier patient.
# 2 It will probably prevent an ulcer because it’s safer than rotary,
hence less gut-wrenching to use than rotary. It can be used with all SafeSiders
instruments, stainless and NiTi, and it doesn’t distort and break instruments
as rotary does.
And the # 1 Reason Dr. Kase Loves Reciprocation: Because it really,
really, really works fantastically and makes doing endodontics a pleasure.
Winter 2004
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