Assessing the cutting efficiency of dental diamond burs

There appear to be little or no differences between the cutting abilities of disposable diamond burs compared with conventional sterilizable burs. Researchers used a laboratory simulation to evaluate 10 samples of 16 types of burs from 9 manufacturers. Twelve of the burs were disposable. Using a standard handpiece, ten consecutive grooves were cut with each bur in a piece of glass ceramic surface. The surface was weighed after each cut to measure how much material was removed. Three of the four conventional burs removed less material in cuts 6 through 10 compared with cuts one through five due to clogging. The same was true for 8 of 12 of the disposable burs. Medium-grit disposable burs had similar cutting efficiencies to medium-grit conventional burs.