Do you have the burs you need in your dental pack? Do you know what they should be used for and why? Looking at a bur catalogue is enough to make you go cross-eyed, and the sheer variety makes it challenging to choose what you will carry in your practice. It can be frustrating to order new burs only to find out theyre either way tinier or larger than expected, too short, or not as useful as you’d hoped.
This short article will distill the essential need to know information for general practitioners, and give a concise list of burs to keep in your extraction pack for dogs and cats.
Bur Type
You should have both carbide cutting burs and diamond burs in your pack. Cutting burs are for more aggressive work – removing bone for accessing tooth roots, sectioning teeth etc. Diamond burs are for smoothing out an area and removing jagged edges of bone after extraction, or to smooth out an area for looking for broken tooth roots.
Bur Shape
Most of my work I do with a round bur, but I use a crosscut taper fissure bur for sectioning of teeth. A large football shaped diamond bur is really useful for smoothing out edges of bone after dental extractions in a big dog.
Bur Size
Different size burs are necessary for different tasks – a large bur will remove bone more aggressively and save time in big area, but is imprecise and can’t be used in tight spaces. The inverse is also true, tiny burs are needed for getting into small spaces.
Bur Length
Burs come with a different shank length. This is how far it sticks out of the head of your handpiece. A longer bur is much more helpful in most cases as it allows you to get better visualization while working. A standard length bur is 19mm and a surgical length bur is 25mm, while 6mm may not sound like a lot it makes a world of difference!
The following are the burs that I keep in my general extraction pack
Essential Burs (7 burs total)
- Surgical length Carbide burs
- Round Burs: Size ½, Size 2 , Size 4 (Brasseler order numbers are H1.36.006, H1.36.010, H1.36.014)
- Crosscut Taper Fissure Bur
- 700 XL (H33L.36.010)
- Surgical Length Coarse (or extra-coarse) Diamond Burs
- Round Diamonds:
016 Diamond (small), 023 Diamond (larger) (6801.36.016, 6801.36.023)
Football shaped diamond (35008.36.004)
- Round Diamonds:
Nice to have 2 additional burs
- Additional crosscut bur
- 169L Taper Fissure (H23L.36.009 )
- Cylinder shaped diamond bur (6836.31.012)
So, while there are almost infinite choices for bur size, shape, length and type, a very simple set up will allow extraction of all teeth in the dog and cat. Remember that burs are disposable and should be changed regularly. Small burs like a ½ round should be discarded after a single use, diamond burs can be used multiple times as long as they are cleaned and autoclaved between patients.
If you ever feel unsure about your dental instrument choices or cases, I’m happy to offer veterinary dental consultations to support you and your practice.
