Dental burs are used for cutting hard tissues – tooth or bone. These are manufactured from steel, stainless, tungsten carbide and diamond grit. There can be a bewildering variety of dental burs in a dental catalogue, but for basic veterinary just use a number of burs are essential.


All burs have a very shank as well as a head. You can find three main forms of shank – Long Straight Shank (HP), Latch-type Shank (RA) and Friction Grip Shank (FG)

Long Straight Shank (HP)
These shanks fit into the nose cone in the slow speed handpiece after the prophy angle or contra angle is taken off. They are used for diamond cutting discs or long 40mm burs. The primary using HP burs is within the trimming of small herbivore cheek teeth.

Latch-type Shank (RA)
These shanks fit into the latch from the contra-angle on slow speed handpieces. They are generally 20mm long and available in the identical shapes as FG burs.

Friction Grip Shank (FG)
These shanks go with the turbine of the high-speed handpiece. The standard length is 20mm long, but longer surgical lengths can be found that can be essential for veterinary work.

Round Head
These heads can be used cavity preparation, creating access points, undercuts and channels for luxator blades in extraction. Sizes range from 1/4 to 9. The smaller the amount, small your head. The most effective sizes to work with initially are 1, 2, and 4.

Pear Head
These heads bring cavity preparation, access points and splitting roots of small teeth. One of the most useful sizes are 330 and 330L

Crosscut Tapered Fissure Head
These heads can be used for sectioning multi-rooted teeth and reducing crown height when disarming dogs. One of the most useful sizes are 700/700L and 701/701L.

Finishing Burs
These heads are used for finishing restorations, soft tissue recontouring, alveolaplasty, enameloplasty and odontoplasty. They may be obtained as 12 or 30 bladed burs in carbide steel or as diamond heads of various shapes. Fortunately they are available as white stone, for composite, or green stone, for amalgam.
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