A Laser Marked Dental Handpiece
Deddington Dental is a 4-surgery dental practice with around 40 fast and slow dental handpieces that are used
by 7 dentists and looked after by 8 nurses. Each dental handpiece costs £400-700 so it is important to keep
track and account for each one. Each surgery has its own allocation of handpieces, and they are taken to a
different decontamination room and processed several times each day.
Akhil Gupta, Principle Dentist, explains: “Previously, we relied on using the tiny serial numbers marked on the
handpieces or using a coloured tape on each one to identify which surgery they belonged to. The method of
using the serial number was very time consuming and hard to read. The tapes would regularly come off when
the handpieces were autoclaved.”
The handpieces are made out of titanium or stainless steel and some are coated by physical vapour deposition
(PVD), so Deddington Dental needed a permanent marking solution that would be compatible with each of these
materials and also their regular cleaning processes.
Dr Gupta continues: “After researching, we decided on laser marking with a local company, ES Precision. We
were able to mark each handpiece with S1, 2, 3 or 4 (for surgery 1-4). These marks were clear and large enough
and were cost-effective to do. Now, our nurses can easily identify each handpiece and we can account for each
one at the beginning and end of the day as part of our daily checklists. The feedback from my nurses has been
that the process saves a lot of time and looks a lot neater than using a coloured tape.”
More information on fine laser processing at www.esprecision.co.uk