Worn tips on dental instruments doesn’t necessarily mean they have reached the end of their useful service life. Retipping dental instruments extends their life while keeping your operating costs down. Rather than discarding perfectly good handles, Goldman removes the old tips from the handles and replaces them with new US surgical stainless steel tips at a fraction of the cost of buying new instruments.
The Retipping Process
Worn dental instruments don’t function optimally and have the potential to do harm to patients, which harms your practice as well. Dull curettes and scalers slide ineffectively over the surface of the tooth without removing tooth calculi in depth. In cases such as these, dullness requires the dentist to use excessive force. Not only does this increase patient trauma during treatment, but it contributes to practitioner wrist, hand, neck, back and shoulder pain.
Retipping Benefits
In contrast to the potential damage to your patients, yourself, and the reputation of your practice, retipping your dental instruments with an experienced and reputable leader in the industry produces multiple benefits:
- Improved cutting and penetration
- Reduced patient time in chair
- Decreased practitioner fatigue
- Promotes recycling
- Meets office customization specifications
- Extreme cost savings over buying new instruments
Steps to the Retipping Process
The retipping process involves several steps:
- Using proven methods honed over decades of experience, the retipping technician separates the tip from the handle.
- Following separation of the tip, the handle undergoes an inspection to determine if there are any flaws or damage to the structural integrity of the handle.
- After inspection a new tip is inserted securely and expertly, balanced to meet the unique specifications of the instrument, and then sealed it in place.
What Kind of Dental Instruments Can be Retipped?
Using the retipping process, Goldman is able to restore nearly all dental hand instruments to optimal working order, including:
- Scalers
- Curettes
- Explorers
- Probes
- Spoon excavators
- Carvers
- Pluggers
- Burnishers
- Plastic and composite instruments
- Surgical scalers
- Surgical curettes
- Surgical knives
- Certain elevators
- Root tip picks
Frequently Asked Questions About Retipping
Since proper performance of dental instruments is essential to patient safety and the success of the dental practice, it is important to address frequently asked questions and concerns about retipping.
Is Retipping Safe?
The retipping process is essentially the same as the original manufacturing process. The only difference in the process is the separation of the old tip from the existing handle. Regardless of whether they are new or retipped, the safety of dental instruments relies upon frequent inspection by the practitioner before use. Frequent testing should include pressing the blades of your instruments into a hard sterile surface to test for give or breakage. This helps identify issues related to the structural integrity of the handle and tip seal prior to each use.
Can I Change Tips from One Type of Instrument to Another?
Scaler and curette tips are interchangeable, as are explorer tips and probe tips. Instructions for changing tips from one handle to another must be included along with the order to ensure the installation of the right tips on the desired handles. Keep in mind that color coding, numbering, and labeling will coincide with the handle rather than the tip of the instrument. We do not modify the existing handle stamp or coding.
Can You Retip Other Brands of Instruments?
Though the majority of manufactured instruments can undergo retipping, not all have the capacity for retipping. Instruments that we cannot retip include those formed of a single piece of molded steel and those with handles entirely formed of resin or plastic. However, you can send in these instruments for recycling using our trade-in program, and receive a discount for the purchase of a replacement new instrument of your choice.
Quality Retipping Services from Goldman Products Inc.
Goldman Products has produced fine dental instruments in the USA since 1979. As a long-time manufacturer of dental products, you can trust us to provide quality retipping that uses the same material and made with the same care as our brand-new instruments. We take extra precautions to properly balance and seal retipped instruments so that they perform as specified. In addition to our retipping services, Goldman also provides add-on services like instrument coatings, custom blade finishes, and instrument tip interchangeability.
Contact us to learn more about the retipping solutions available from Goldman Products, Inc. to keep your dental instruments working like new and help keep your operation costs low.