Bur visibility

[Gen. Beauregard]

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Hey y'all, kind of a weird question I wanted to throw out and see if anyone has a tip or a quick fix. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm having a difficult time seeing the delineation between my bur's head and neck, particularly on the 245's. Does anyone have a trick to make it more visible? I know there are burs with gold plated shafts and necks, but I can't swing the cost when I'm just burning them up on dentoform teeth. Has anyone tried tapping their grease pencil against the shaft while the bur was running at a slow speed, or know of a cheap bur with marking lines? Thanks for any help, and good luck with finals if you're in them right now.

 

[bigstix808]

know the length of the bur. ie: 330 is 1.8ish mm in length, etc. all of that comes with practice. on plastic teeth, you're always going to be shooting in the dark. accept that. in real teeth you'll eval thickness of enamel and dentin and prep accordingly. there is no trick. you have the bur with flutes, and you have the shank. learn the measurements. you'll be better off. esp with the basic burs you're likely being taught. 330/1.8mm cutting depth, 245 2.7mm, 557 4.2mm, and so on. just do it. seriously. at least until you pass your pre clinicals. then its all clinical dependent and "burs dont matter". its what gets the job done that is fundamentally sound. period.

 

[Gen. Beauregard]

Sounds good, thanks for responding! Not that I'm trying to be a pain or break any anti-solicitation rules for the forum, but is there a bur manufacturer that you prefer in your practice? Anything that makes you go, "wow, I would have kicked butt in school if I had this"? I'm not unashamedly gunning here, I just want to make my life easier. Unless you want to say, "No, dental student, you shall do it the hard way like your forefathers before you, because it's good for you", which I'll also understand and accept.

 

[Gen. Beauregard]

Tried the red/blue grease pencil on a 245 bur tonight and it worked. I'm sure I'm not the first to think of it, but if you run it in the hand piece with no water mist and tap the pencil tip to the neck it comes out looking anodized. Really helped the visibility.

 

[SSTR]

Nice MOD on 19

 

[Gen. Beauregard]

Haha I do what I can. A good friend would have told you to invest in mercury before I started. I'll give you a heads up next time.

 

[ramseszerg]

Sounds good, thanks for responding! Not that I'm trying to be a pain or break any anti-solicitation rules for the forum, but is there a bur manufacturer that you prefer in your practice? Anything that makes you go, "wow, I would have kicked butt in school if I had this"? I'm not unashamedly gunning here, I just want to make my life easier. Unless you want to say, "No, dental student, you shall do it the hard way like your forefathers before you, because it's good for you", which I'll also understand and accept.

I used to think 169 and 245 for class II preps in preclinical but now that I'm in clinic, I'm finding thicker fissure burs like a 170 or 171 is actually ideal for cutting cleaner, more ideal-shaped class II cavities faster.

 

[Sublimazing]

301 elevator