Implant Drill Usage
Your surgical drills are not meant to last forever. When they are sharp, these instruments will cut efficiently and accurately. These burs, especially the pilot and cortical drills, take a lot of abuse as they go through cortical bone. On top of that, every time they are autoclaved, there is degradation of the cutting edge. All this results in a less than ideal cutting instrument.
If you are using dull pilot and cortical drills, you will find that you need to use more pressure to drive the bur through bone. Your final drills will also not cut smoothly and effortlessly through bone. This inefficiency can result in heating of the bone and possibly a larger osteotomy than recommended. Both of these can result in lack of primary stability and possibly failure of your implants due to bone necrosis.
Argon Dental USA recommends that your surgical drills be replaced after 20 uses (depending on bone density) in order to keep them efficiently cutting. We do not recommend re-sharpening as that will result in a narrower diameter former which can result in compression necrosis when an implant is placed.
Make sure to use the K3Pro Implant Drill Usage Charts below and replace your surgical drills regularly.
3.0 – 3.5 Precision Guided Drill Usage Chart
4.0 – 4.5 Precision Guided Drill Usage Chart
