Lubricating a hand piece

[mightymouse]

Curious on your thoughts about lubricating hand pieces. I was given a lubricating spray from Dental Creations to test out. No guidance was given or instructions. I’m aware to little serves no purpose but too much can damage the effectiveness of the hand piece. Anyone have some suggestions.

 

[CoolHandLuke]

i'm not a lube kinda guy

 

[tuyere]

Do what the manufacturer recommends unless you have a good reason to do otherwise, imo. In some applications grease will just catch dust and make the issue worse, whereas my Foredom flexshaft's core will bore its way through the sheath pretty quickly if you run it for extended periods without the requisite greasing per X service hours.

 

[rkm rdt]

Probably best to get it lubed by a professional.
That way it becomes a business expense.

 

[JKraver]

Unless they are providing you with a handpiece to try it on, I wouldn't. They basically gave you an expensive can of wd40 or one lube.

 

[Garland Dental Services]

@mightymouse is your handpiece a high speed (air driven) or electric? If electric, don't introduce any lubricant. It will end up binding with any debris in the handpiece and bog it down. Cleaning that sludge out is not fun.

If air driven, it depends on what type of bearings the handpiece has. Some high speeds (NSK Presto, some Shofu) use lube free bearings, and lubing will degrade/damage the bearings. Some handpieces (Bien Air TD783/890) use grease and not oil/spray lubricants. Most of the spray lubricants that you're going to see are for clinical handpieces.

 

[mightymouse]

Thanks everyone. I decided to not use it and return the product. For all of the reason you listed there were too many variables of things going wrong and not enough positives.

 

[JKraver]

Before my hand peice needs to go in for repair, I will use a drying silicone lubricant and it gives me a few extra days/weeks. Its a bandaid not a solution.