Handpiece degradation associated with performance testing of diamond rotary cutting instruments

Reliable standardized testing of dental rotary cutting instruments remains a problem because of the many significant parameters that require identifying and quantifying. In a previous study, handpiece wear or degradation was identified as a potentially significant confounding variable leading to the suggestion that the use of industrial handpieces might be necessary. Therefore, the objective of this investigation was to measure and compare industrial and dental air rotor degradation during a simulated diamond rotary cutting instrument test. Two dental and two industrial products were tested in a random sequence using three replicate samples of each air rotor. The simulated test consisted of 10 diamond instruments each making 90 passes through a float glass substrate. The testing apparatus comprised a computer-interfaced device that controlled the contact force between the cutting diamond and the substrate. Air rotor performance was based on the time required to cut a standardized path through the substrate. The performance change that occurred from diamond instrument to instrument during the simulated test was attributed to air rotor degradation. Multiple regression analyses showed significant differences between replicate samples of the same type and between regression intercepts for different air rotor types. Surprisingly, four air rotors exhibited improving performance during the simulated test. Changing air rotor performance must be considered to achieve reliability for the testing of diamond rotary cutting instruments.