I have no idea how to use a piezo, in school I used an ultrasonic and loved it and never had a problem removing tenacious calculus. I currently have a piezo and could not remove any of the sheet calculus my pt. had today. Im also not sure what tips i have/where in mouth they work and dds doesnt know either any suggestions??
If the tips are old you need to buy new ones. Buy a variety of tips!!
The ultrasonic inserts you love because all sides are active. This is from RDH mag:
Piezo typically operates in the 40k to 60k per second range — really, really fast.
Piezo tips are active only on the lateral sides (like a curette) with the last 2.4 mm being the most effective portion of the tip.
These tips are durable, but can bend if dropped with the handpiece attached.
Precaution during sterilization should be taken because these tips are little and often escape, kind of like the sock that escapes in the dryer.
The type of sterilization does not affect the tips. However, you should have a consistent technique to sterilize the handpiece. See the link.
I also was talking to a periodontist and he said treat the piezo tip like a hand instrument because that’s how the tip are shaped and work with lateral pressure.
Link: http://www.rdhmag.com/articles/print/volume-29/issue-9/feature/good-good-good-good-vibrations.html
I now use the piezo at my new office and felt the same way. I like the thin “perio tips” and the universal tip. I rarely use the wider tips. I do like how the piezo seems to spray the patient less than the ultrasonic. I feel like you need to turn up the piezo unit more than you think in order to get off tenacious calculus.
I always use the straight tips and it gets off the bulk of the calculus, we have only had one patient that we had to refer to a periodontist cause I spend almost 45 minutes on the interproximal of one tooth with the piezo and hand scaling and it just wouldn’t come off. But all in all I love ours..
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