Oral surgical handpiece use time parameters.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the clinical usage time parameters of handpieces used in oral surgical procedures.


METHODS
One hundred randomly selected clinical oral surgery exodontia procedures were timed to record lengths of continuous segments of both handpiece use and non-usage. Providers with experience ranging from general dentists to board certified oral surgeons were timed during surgical exodontia treatment involving 1 to 4 teeth of various complexities. Usage times were compared with manufacturers' recommendations that on times should not exceed 20 seconds in any 50-second interval (20/50 rule).


RESULTS
Handpiece run time increased with the number of teeth and surgical case complexity (both P < .001) but was unrelated to operator experience (P = .763), in a 3-predictor model (R2 = 0.20; P < .001). Ninety-four of the 100 cases experienced at least 1 second in violation of the 20/50 rule and 42% of all run seconds were in violation.


CONCLUSIONS
Clinicians should be aware of recommended handpiece duty use cycles. Manufacturers' recommendations about handpiece use time cycles do not reflect actual clinical usage. Under the conditions of this study, actual surgical handpiece use time was not correlated with user experience. Less experienced providers did require longer to complete treatment, but increased treatment times were due to time spent that did not require surgical handpiece use.
Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA. hwroberts@nidbr.med.navy.mil
Howard W
HW
Roberts
Mark E
ME
Cohen
David F
DF
Murchison
D002983:Clinical Competence; D003754:Dental High-Speed Equipment; D003755:Dental High-Speed Technique; D005792:General Practice, Dental; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D019239:Practice Patterns, Dentists'; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013515:Surgery, Oral; D013997:Time Factors; D014081:Tooth Extraction / Q000295:instrumentation*