DENTAL AIR TURBINE HANDPIECE PERFORMANCE TESTING

Air turbine handpieces are expected to continue to be widely used as t he main means of carrying out dental cutting work and scope exists for further design improvements. An understanding of the theoretical prin ciples governing the performance of these devices seems essential for the systematic development of better handpiece designs and methods of specification. Furthermore. for experimental work on cutting behaviour with air turbine equipment, this knowledge is required for appropriat e characterization of the performance of the particular handpiece used with respect to actual rates of energy deposition. The literature rel ating to air turbine handpiece performance is critically reviewed to a ssess currently available methods of measuring important variables suc h as speed, torque, and power. In this, consideration is given to the current state of knowledge of the influence on these variables of air pressure, flow and turbine design features. It is apparent that, altho ugh various measurement methods have been described and data for indiv idual handpieces published, no attempt has yet been made to explore th e functional relationships that exist between the variables. It is con cluded that there is a need to identify the factors influencing turbin e performance, to develop measurement systems which would provide adeq uate accuracy and precision and then to investigate the functional rel ationships between these relevant variables.