Rotary Dental Instruments

You and your dentist have many tools for keeping your teeth and gums clean and healthy. Generally, people prefer the tools that don't hurt and that prevent dental health issues. A couple of the best tools for promoting oral hygiene are rotary tools. Unfortunately, not everything that spins is painless and prevention oriented. There are also rotary dental devices used in restorative procedures.

Electric Toothbrushes

• Today's electric toothbrushes are rotary. Dentists recommend them because American Dental Association studies show that rotary electric toothbrushes can achieve up to 7,500 brushstrokes per minute -- which makes effective tooth cleaning far easier and more likely than with a traditional manual brush. Some models also employ sonic waves that turn water molecules in the mouth -- including in saliva -- into tooth-cleaning agents. Sonic toothbrushes can effectively offer up to 30,000 brushstrokes per minute.

Tooth Polishers

• When your dentist or dental hygienist completes your tooth cleaning, she reaches for a rotary device to help finish the job. Rotary tooth polishers grind flavored tooth polish onto your teeth in the last stage of removing plaque debris. It also helps make your pearly whites a little pearlier. Dental polishing is painless, although it should be performed only by a dentist or licensed dental hygienist.

Drills

• People often fear dental drills and associate them with pain. With the right anesthetic, dentists can make it so drills don't hurt, but they can't eliminate the sensation of pressure that drills make as they grind away pieces of corroded enamel. Dentists use these hand-held devices with diamond drill tips most commonly in cavity restorations and root canals -- procedures no one wants to undergo.

Burs

• Dental drills have many uses, and rotary burs turn a standard hand piece into a multifunctional tool. Burs come in all varieties from very thin, fine bits to make tiny incisions into teeth to specially shaped, broad, reinforcing devices capable of drilling to bone during an endodontic procedure. Some burs also have the capacity to open wide holes in tooth crowns to make room for endodontic surgery.