Are lost burs costing your business money?

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burs close up

Nothing is more frustrating than when one of the smallest, yet most fundamental items in the dental practice goes missing – the bur! In 2015 over £5.3 million* was spent in the UK on this practice necessity, yet burs and bur management are still one of the most overlooked and underrated areas of running a dental practice.

All clinicians have suffered the problem of the missing bur. The result is wasted time, agitation, frustration and financial loss. Burs are small instruments, they drop onto the floor, get swept up in tissues and gauzes and that is even before they get to the decontamination area. No-one is to blame; it is so often the system that is at fault, so here are some quick and easy solutions that you can start to implement right away.

  • Create your own system

    Don’t feel confined to organising your burs in a storage system according to a pre-arranged layout defined by the manufacturer. Invest in a system that allows you to arrange burs by ‘dentist’, ‘technique’ or ‘procedure’, to simplify bur selection.

  • Start labelling

    Remember, due to the decontamination process this can’t be done with stickers, so find a system that allows you to use a Sharpie pen or CD marker and start labelling by specific procedures i.e. composites, veneer prep.

  • Colour-coding

    Colour coded bur holders that are assigned for specific dentists or surgeries can be a useful approach to adopt during bur selection.

  • Size matters

    Work with a system that offers different size bur holders to facilitate many types of procedure kits.

  • Scrap the metal

    Sterilisable bur holders have traditionally been made of metal but they simply don’t grip, and burs are prone to falling out especially during decontamination. Opt for a silicone base (with a transparent lid) that will securely “grip” any type of bur, even if it is tipped over or dropped, and will remain in the holder throughout the decontamination process.

Implementing a bur management system, that facilitates quick and easy retrieval of your burs will not only help ensure you always have the burs you need at hand, but will help increase practice efficiency, reduce stress and save you valuable time and money wasted by lost burs.

To find out how you can start to eliminate the costs and frustration of lost burs in your practice click here and we’ll be in touch with our recommended solutions.

*Data on file and available on request
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