We often get extremely cheap handpieces for repair that I refer to as “knockoffs”. These come from offices that purchased them on the popular online auction site. Many of these handpieces cost as little as $25 .
A quality repair for these knockoffs are often more than they cost new. Why you may ask? Because these handpieces skirt the U.S. laws and are not approved to be used on patients in the U.S. and have inferior parts.
I recently contacted one of the largest dental handpiece sellers on the auction site and point blank asked this question: “ Are these ADA or FDA approved to be used on patients in the United States?” This is their response: “Sorry, it don’t have, but many dentists buy these handpiece from us. Any concerns kindly let me know”.
First off, note the poor use of the language. Secondly when we’ve taken some of these knockoffs apart the bearings are lubricated with a heavy dark grease. Many of these fail within days or a couple months from purchase.
From the short life span that these knockoffs experience one can assume that the grease was not high temp and they don’t survive the autoclave. Secondly if it breaks down in the autoclave is it expelled into the patients mouth?
If it was expelled in the patients mouth, is it toxic? If it is expelled is it interfering with restorative bonding? We can’t answer any of these questions because they were not tested or approved to be used in our mouths.
There are many “what if” questions to be answered.
What if a bur is ejected and the patient swallows it? What if your bonding fails? What if a patient has a reaction to the grease that is expelled? There are many legal ramifications to using handpieces that have not been approved for the U.S. consumers.
Protect your patients from injury and protect your practice from lawsuits that could arise from using such knock off handpieces. All repairs performed by Hughes are done by professionally trained technicians only using parts approved for use in the United States dental industry.
You may check our competitive pricing on our services page.
Ship your handpiece today using our postage paid label.
