Fundamental Knowledge About Veterinary Dental Burs

Dental burs can be used cutting hard tissues – tooth or bone. They may be made of steel, metal, tungsten carbide and diamond grit. There may be a bewildering selection of dental burs in almost any dental catalogue, however for basic veterinary don’t use anything but a number of burs are expected.


All burs have a shank plus a head. You will find three main varieties of shank – Long Straight Shank (HP), Latch-type Shank (RA) and Friction Grip Shank (FG)

Long Straight Shank (HP)
These shanks match the nose cone of the slow speed handpiece when the prophy angle or contra angle is taken off. They are utilized for diamond cutting discs or long 40mm burs. The main usage of HP burs is within the trimming of small herbivore cheek teeth.

Latch-type Shank (RA)
These shanks fit into the latch in the contra-angle on slow speed handpieces. They are generally 20mm long and obtainable in the same shapes as FG burs.

Friction Grip Shank (FG)
These shanks fit into the turbine of a high-speed handpiece. The typical length is 20mm long, but longer surgical lengths are available which are generally necessary for veterinary work.

Round Head
These heads are used for cavity preparation, creating access points, undercuts and channels for luxator blades in extraction. Sizes range between 1/4 to 9. The smaller the number, the smaller your head. The top sizes to utilize initially are 1, 2, and 4.

Pear Head
These heads can be used for cavity preparation, access points and splitting roots of small teeth. One of the most useful sizes are 330 and 330L

Crosscut Tapered Fissure Head
These heads can be used sectioning multi-rooted teeth and reducing crown height when disarming dogs. Probably the most useful sizes are 700/700L and 701/701L.

Finishing Burs
These heads are used for finishing restorations, soft tissue recontouring, alveolaplasty, enameloplasty and odontoplasty. They are often obtained as 12 or 30 bladed burs in carbide steel or as diamond heads of numerous shapes. They’re also like white stone, for composite, or green stone, for amalgam.
More info about horse teeth equine dental burrs browse this popular site

Be First to Comment

Leave a Reply