How to make sure bur is perpendicular to tooth?

[dentalprodigy]

Hi,
I'm struggling with maintaining a uniform and flat pulpal floor when doing class 1 and 2's. Could you please post your tips on how you make sure that your bur is perpendicular to the long axis of the tooth so as to avoid a slanted class 1 pulpal floor. Personally when doing tooth 18/19, my mesial ends up being deeper while the distal ends up being shallower.

Someone told me to use the buccal groove of #18/19 to help make the bur parallel BUT being left handed this technique doesn't work well for me since I don't have enough room to fit my handpiece AND a mirror to make sure my buccal groove is parallel to the bur. I've been also told to simply tilt your whole body sideways and quickly checkout your bur from a side profile view but that hasn't worked well for me and can be taxing on my back after a couple of hours.

I struggled with the same issue of slanted pulpal floor on class 1's/2's with a mesial bias and want to rectify this weakness in my second year.

Really looking forward to your personal ways to make sure your bur parallel!

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[UCSD6]

Imagine the plane of the occlusal table, for example in a bicuspid a line that connects both the cusps tips. That line is then imagined as a plane. Keep you bur perpendicular to the occlusal table and you shouldn't have a problem with making a flat pulpal floor. If you don't know what an occlusal table is, google it.

 

[OhioDMD]

jk

Make sure your bur is the same depth from the cavosurface margin and parallel with the long axis of the tooth. Never underestimate the value of a new bur in a slow speed for final refinement of the preparation and last and most of all practice. Tooth preparation is a learned motor skill.

 

[7 Iron]

In addition to what was said here, after you've done your initial prep, learn how to evaluate it. This is also a necessary skill to learn. No prep is perfect at first--there is always refinement. If you have a ball gauge with a 1.5mm end on it, try putting that into the prep on the pulpal floor and seeing if it goes to depth. Then move it from mesial to distal and see if it still goes to depth--if not, prep further in that area. You could also use a perio probe and measure 1.5mm (or however deep you want to be).

 

[jeffity]

Lock your wrist. If you're starting perpendicular to the table and parallel to the long axis, I bet your loss of depth is straying from multiple planes and not just drifting straight coronally. Especially since you are probably adjusting as you go distal (tighter teach). For sim purposes, you're like a CADCAM mill. Keeping your position fixed is going to help with indirect too.

I also like sitting at 12 for something like this. Easier to see all planes.

Agree with above about knowing dimensions of burs and using them as a guide. Some people in sim like the pilot hole method. Drop to depth in a few spots, then connect the dots.

 

[dentalprodigy]

Thanks alot for the replies everyone. Just got back from pre clinic and used some of the techniques mentioned. In particular I had great success with using the 35 bur (~1 mm) as a rough gauge on my pulpal depth for class 1's.

Again, thanks!

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