Practice Tips #58: Japanese Style Handpieces

This month, we’re going to look at the Japanese style dental high-speed handpieces to see what sets this type apart. In previous issues of Practice Tips, we discussed various aspects of handpieces. This includes dental handpiece maintenance, design, and factors that influence torque. As we discussed, one of the factors that influences torque is the turbine in your high-speed handpiece.

What Are Japanese Style Handpieces?

The Japanese style dental handpiece design is the most popular high-speed in the world. Originally they were manufactured and designed in Japan, hence the name. As it is so widely used, many also refer to these as “generic” or “universal” dental handpieces.

Naturally, widely used means a great number of “brand names” appear on Japanese style handpieces. This style has been commonly used for “house brand” handpieces (#15-30, 15-31, 15-3215-33). Note that these same brand names appear on handpieces that, also, use other dental turbines (most notably, NSK). Just know the handpiece model, not just the manufacturer.

Handpiece Variations and Benefits

The Japanese style handpiece offers a combination of reliability, size (for superior access and vision), torque, and convenience. This “standard” handpiece has a smaller head than many other handpieces, so it affords better access and visibility.

However, for those who require a particularly small head, these handpieces also come in “mini” (small head) size. This is popular with pediatric specialists. Although smaller sizes provide easy access and be beneficial to many practitioners (GP and specialist alike).

Standard (Japanese) Style Handpiece With a Mini Head

For those who require more torque, you can also purchase a Japanese style handpiece with a “supergrade” (large) head. The larger bearings and impeller of the “supergrade” typically yield more power.

As with most handpieces, the Japanese style has options such as fiber optics and a push-button chuck. They also have a swivel quick disconnect coupler for added convenience.

2 Types of Turbines

One of the key ways to differentiate the Japanese style handpiece is the turbine. Use Japanese style handpieces with a standard “canister” turbine (or just “can” for short). A canister turbine has the same components as any other turbine (dental handpiece design), but a metal shell or canister encases the entire turbine. It encloses the bearings, o-rings, washers, and other components, so there is no need to take the care with these components as one would with other turbines.

#15-80 Standard Japanese canister

PHOTO: A typical canister turbine (#15-80)

Because of the encased components, canister-style turbines easily install in just a few seconds by any member of staff. None of the o-rings, washers, or other delicate components are loose or exposed so you don’t have to worry about proper handling of them. One cannot twist o-rings, get washers out of place, or run into any of the other common “user errors” during installation. This means replacing a canister turbines chairside only takes a few seconds.

Simple turbine changes make the Japanese style handpiece the easiest, quickest, and most economical to service. No need to send it out. No need to spend a great deal of time making sure that you removed all of the old turbine components and cleaned out handpiece heads. Just push the old canister turbine out and pop the new canister turbine in.

Canister Styles

You’ll note in the above photo, the standard canister has flat ends, like a can of soup. There are a wide range of other turbines in shells that are not standard canisters. These turbines taper at one end or the other, bear o-rings on the exterior, have extra grooves or notches, or possess other distinguishing features.

A pair of non-standard canister turbines

PHOTO: A pair of non-standard canister turbines.

In order to keep the turbine properly oriented within the handpiece head, the canister turbine has a “lock pin” on the top of the canister. Most manufacturers affix a small ball bearing to the top of the canister turbine to serve this purpose. Notice some have a raised area manufactured into the canister shell instead. Either way, this projection needs to line up with a small notch in the top of the handpiece head.

The lock pin keeps the canister turbine stable within the handpiece head, which is important as the canister has two holes for drive air and exhaust air. To function the holes must line up with the drive air and exhaust air holes at the bottom of the handpiece. You can see how the lock pin engages in our turbine installation video in Practice Tips or our You Tube channel.

Naturally, the turbine will change for the mini head and supergrade head handpieces which use “mini” (small) and “supergrade” (large) versions of the standard can. These variations on the canister turbine have the same “soup can” shape but are smaller or larger in size.

Canister turbines are also economical as they usually are available at a lower price than any turbine on the market. Of course, not all canister turbines are created equal (even though they share the same design and should be interchangeable). Most canisters on the market carry a 90 day warranty. American Dental Accessories, Inc. warranty all canister turbines for 6 full months, twice the industry standard.

When looking for a solid, reliable, easily serviced and economical handpiece, the Japanese style can serve very well in the typical dental office.

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