Sharpen Up - Dull Instruments Will Make Your Life Difficult!
By Obaid Baig, RDH
My fellow hygienists – it’s time to drop the excuses and sharpen up.
I get it - Sharpening is not the most exciting activity in the world. However, practicing and honing your skills goes a long way to boost your confidence and excitement about sharpening. Think about the downside of dull instruments and the upside of sharpening them will immediately become clear.
Dull instruments will make your life difficult in many ways:
- They cause clinicians to slip over tooth surfaces and hinder your ability to grab and remove calculus, usually resulting in burnished calculus.
- They force clinicians to use more pressure and a greater number strokes to remove calculus, resulting in longer patient appointments and decreased comfort for both the clinician and the patient.
- They result in ineffective instrumentation, which puts the patient at risk for soft tissue damage, while putting the clinician atrisk for wrist or joint injuries.
Whether you like a natural Arkansas stone, a flat credit card-sized Diamond Sharpening Card, or an automated Sidekick sharpener, Hu-Friedy provides a variety of instrument sharpening options.
View all of our Sharpening Solutions to decide which one is right for your needs!
To improve your sharpening skills, view our on-demand CE webinar: Solving the Mysteries of Instrument Sharpening with Hu-Friedy presenter
Tami Wanless, RDH.
