Section 2. Equipment of the dental office

Chapter 3. Basic equipment of the dental office

To equip a dental office, you need a large number of equipment, which can be divided into the following groups.

1. Equipment and equipment necessary for the direct performance of medical manipulations.

A. The main equipment is a dental unit, a dental chair, a doctor's chair, an assistant's chair, a doctor's dental table.

B. Auxiliary equipment — equipment designed to perform specific medical or diagnostic manipulations. Example: apparatus for electro­odontodiagnosis, diathermocoagulator, apex locator, lamp for light curing of polymers, amalgamation, etc.

2. Equipment for sterilization and disinfection — autoclave (hot steam and pressure), hot-dry-air sterilizer, glassperlen sterilizer for small instrument sterilization, table for sterile instruments, quartz lamp for room air disinfection, fume hood when working with amalgam.
3. Equipment for the work of a nurse — a desk for documentation, a computer (when using electronic documentation), a chair, a safe for storing documents and electronic backups.
4. Equipment for hand treatment and pre-sterilization treatment of me­dical products — a sink for washing hands, a sink for washing tools, containers with disinfectant and cleaning solutions.
5. Medical furniture — a multi-tiered cabinet for storing medicines, instruments, filling and dressing materials, a cabinet for toxic (A) and potent (B) substances, an emergency first aid kit, a couch, chairs for patients, a cabinet for sanitary equipment.

All equipment in the office must be placed so that the doctor and assistant do not make unnecessary movements, and the nurse can quickly implement the doctor's instructions. In addition, the placement of furniture and equipment should be carried out with the formation of a clean and dirty zone so that there is no intersection of sterile and non-sterile.

To provide qualified care, the most important equipment is a dental unit.

Dental unit is a hardware complex that allows you to perform basic dental interventions (fig. 3.1).

Fig. 3.1. Dental unit

Currently, the term «dental unit» means a complete set that includes: the chair itself, a compressor, a doctor's table, a doctor's chair, and an assistant's chair.

The device of the dental unit. The dental unit consists of functional blocks, each of which has its own purpose. Depending on the configuration of the dental chair, the set of blocks may change.

Main blocks of the dental unit.

1. Tool block — the main block of the dental unit contains tools for manipulating the oral cavity. It can be equipped with a lighting unit for instruments with fiber-optic illuminators (fig. 3.2).

A. Low-speed motors provide a rotation speed of the rotary tool from 10.000 to 30.000 revolutions per minute. There are usually two handpieces: therapeutic and orthopedic.

B. High-speed rotary (turbine) tools-provide the rotation speed of the rotary tool from 300.000 to 500.000 revolutions per minute.

C. Other tools — scaler (tool for removing dental plaque), dental curing lamp (for polymerization of resin-based dental composites), etc.

Fig. 3.2. Tool block

2. Control unit — consists of a pedal and a control panel. It is used to control all installation systems (the position of the chair, the speed of rotation of tools, and other parameters).
3. Hydroblock (fig. 3.3).

A. Spittoon — designed for disposal of saliva and other liquids in the sewer system, equipped with a flush system.

B. Glass sink — designed for filling the glass with water for rinsing the mouth, equipped with a filter for cleaning incoming water.

C. Salivary pump — designed for disposal of saliva and other liquids directly from the patient's mouth to the sewer system.

D. Vacuum cleaner — designed for disposal of aerosol mixture formed in the oral cavity when working with high-speed (turbine) hand­pieces. Only installations with high-speed tools are equipped with them (fig. 3.4).

E. Water-air gun — designed for drying with a jet of air and irrigation of the oral cavity with water or water-air mixture (fig. 3.5).

Fig. 3.3. Hydroblock

Fig. 3.4. Vacuum cleaner

Fig. 3.5. Water-air gun

4. Lighting unit — consists of a halogen lighting lamp for lighting the working field and a bracket that allows you to raise, lower, rotate in a horizontal plane and hold the lamp in a given position. Surgical dental unit can be equipped with shadowless lamps (fig. 3.6).

Fig. 3.6. Halogen lighting lamp

5. Dental chair — designed to accommodate the patient and designed in such a way that the treatment is as comfortable as possible for the doctor in any position of the patient. The back of the chair has an anatomical shape, which creates comfort for the patient. The chair moves in a vertical plane (rises and falls) to provide a height that is convenient for the doctor's work. The back of the chair is also able to rise and fall (to give the patient the desired tilt or recumbent position). The headrest provides a comfortable position of the patient's head in the horizontal and vertical planes.
6. Compressor — designed to supply compressed air to the turbine handpieces and water-air gun (fig. 3.7).
7. Dentist's table — designed for placing tools, devices and apparatuses during work, equipped with wheels for easy movement. Recently, a table-­nightstand, which has several drawers with sets of tools for various manipulations, has become very popular (fig. 3.8).