[Hardening of dental instruments]

The possibility of prolonging the service life of stomatological instruments by the local hardening of their working parts is discussed. Such hardening should be achieved by using hard and wear-resistant materials. The examples of hardening dental elevators and hard-alloy dental drills are given. New trends in the local hardening of instruments are the treatment of their working parts with laser beams, the application of coating on their surface by the gas-detonation method. The results of research work and trials are presented.