1. Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure relates generally to dental instruments and, more specifically, to apparatus for effecting the replacement of tips of dental hand pieces, such as ultrasonic scalers, in a manner that ensures proper function and avoids damage to either the replacement tip or the handpiece.
2. Related Art
Ultrasonic scalers are used to remove calculus from teeth. A prescribed torque must be exerted when a new tip is inserted in the hand piece to achieve proper installation. A loose tip may detrimentally impact proper function of the device. An over-tightened tip may result in damage to the tip, the hand piece, or both, such as by stripping the threads used to secure the tip within the hand piece of the ultrasonic scaler.
After each use of an ultrasonic scaler, its tips must be sterilized. It is desirable to prevent the tips from colliding with a sterilization tray or with other instruments during sterilization, as such collisions may damage the tips or cause them to prematurely become dull. It would be desirable to provide an apparatus that not only ensured application of the proper amount of torque during tip replacement, but that also serves to protect individual tips during sterilization. Apparatus achieving these and other desired characteristics are described in the following Summary and Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments.