Instrument Care

Since 1975 our family has provided superior sharpening services to the medical/dental professions.

Our job here is in some ways very straight forward; it being to restore a cutting edge to a very small and in some cases, intricate shape.  On the other hand it sometimes requires us to be psychics in determining what standard each individual hygienist is comfortable with.  What one may reject... another is quite happy to use.   In all cases our job necessitates the removal of some material from the instrument.  In some cases this may mean a reduction of all three dimensions of the working end.  While it is a pleasure to receive instruments that have been gently used and correctly honed in the office and need only some simple restoration, we also receive some of the most misshapen and abused instruments imaginable. That makes instrument triage sometimes a challenge for us.Some of them make us wonder how they could've possibly been in use.   And then we try to divine what the client who sent them to us hopes the end result of our work will be.  Sometimes we do reject those instruments outright but sometimes we set about attempting to regain a usable shape with a clean edge while

hoping that we are not just wasting our valuable time in the end.  It is difficult to always determine correctly whether a particular hygienist will agree that our finished product will work for them.  Rejecting an instrument is so subjective.  I hope we are in line with your requirements, if not please let us know. Pertaining to how long an edge will last: usage dulls the instrument edge and so does steam sterilization. If usage is up then that is a good thing.  If instrument edges are exposed to excessive sterilization or contact with other instruments or cleaning implements then that is not so good.  Don't place instruments in the ultrasonic without assuring that the tips remain separated and do not come into contact with the sides of the device.You are likely quite aware of all these handling tips but just in case:   Instruments should be grouped so that there are no redundant sharp instruments in the tray to be exposed to unneeded sterilization cycles. Keep all those extra items in peel pouches for quick access only when needed.  And validate your sterilizers to be sure the run time is not unnecessarily long and that there are no spikes in temperature that are detrimental to the edges and points.  This still sounds strange to me but it is true.