Different Type of Burnishers

Burnishers are dental hand instruments and are normally used at the end of dental restoration procedures or operations. They are used to emphasize grooves and to shave off surplus fins. Burnishers are also used to smooth off the rough margins after a dental restoration, polish the dental restoration, and to remove any scratches formed on the amalgam surface formed during the dental procedure. The working ends of the burnishers are angled, and the ends, either or both, are rounded and smooth. The ends can be single-ended or double-ended in structure.

The various types of burnishers based on the shape of their end parts are:

• Flat plastic burnisher
• Ball burnisher
• Beavertail burnisher
• Cone burnisher
• T-ball burnisher
• Rotary burnisher

Different types of burnishers have different specialized purposes, and are available in peculiar shapes, and sizes. For example, the rotary dental burnisher contains a shank portion that tapers down and connects to a fluted burnishing head. The rotary burnishing head are polished, rounded, and elongated, and has ridges on the surface. The T-ball burnisher has a T-shape at its one end, and one of the ends of the T-shape is shaped like a ball. The ball-end dental burnisher is usually used as a probe to find specific orodontal margins.

Burnishers are precision dental hand instruments and these delicate instruments need careful handling and maintenance to preserve their quality and promote longer life of the instrument. Dental burnishers are multipurpose precision hand instruments and are also used in the operative procedures of eye, ear, nose, and throat.