Break The Chain with the BurButler

The importance has never been greater to “Break the Chain” of infection. The more effectively and efficiently the chain is broken the better for all concerned.

In the dental clinic, we have developed protocols and processes to establish and implement this practically. I have been traveling the world showing and education the clinicians about this for the past 10 years and now is the time to act.

“Change for the better”

In the past dentist have autoclaved their burs and replaced them into a plastic or metal stand, to sit chair-side along all the other burs.  This an old practice with lots of cross infection control concerns. Some of these stands were invented back in1958 and are still on the market, where sixty or more burs sit chair-side for days, week and sometimes months before being used, along the newly processed burs!

This can be seen in a report of the microorganisms found on these chair-side bur stand. These stands must be removed, they should not be used _ just imaging the dust let alone the aerosol that this generated in a dental clinic.

A bur stand or endo-stand should be like the other instruments that are used on each patient they should be one for each patient. This will organise the clinic and bring best practice to the process.

Bur stands should also be coved for chair side. Burs should not be washed or placed in contact with each other in the washer/disinfector or ultrasonic as the contact area prevents irrigation. This is often seen with a product that look like a tea-strainer- this is an old practice and does not break the chain of infection.

In the innovation and creative time of developing the process of the BurButler we considered many ideas and creative design to make the concept of “Break the Chain” a game changer in bur management.

• The size of bur-stand to suit the diversity of needs of the clinicians.
• The conical star shaped hole and the peripheral protuberances were development to hold and center both latch grip and friction grip burs firm, but firm with a light touch for placement and removal.
• The material research and development of an autoclavable lid that would withstand multiple autoclaves. This engineering of the interface of the ribs of the skirt of the lid and the “lip” of silicon in the base to create a “soft” touch fit.
• Consideration of the management of stock control to prevent cumbersome searching through packaging to find your needed bur and the potential cross infection of that packaging.
• Material and colour stability of the medial grade silicon to allow colour coding and easy visualisation.

There are many benefits to becoming organised.  Decluttering of burs – to manage the burs and their stock control and storage was one of our prime objectives. However the ability to customise each bur stand to each dentist with their selection and order of the burs they require meant each stand can be designed by the dentist for any procedure.  Crown and bridge, veneer, inlay, general restorative, paediatric, composite set, endo access, post preparation set, laboratory burs.

Even in the practices that use one use only burs, the dentist can send their colour coded BurButler to the decontamination room with the knowledge it the burs can be left in situ and returned as it was sent! This will give more control and time to both the assistant/nurse as well as the dentist.

BurButler has reduced stress levels and improved efficiency in the decontamination room as the burs can be sterilised in the bur stand removing and replacing any burs that are spent or one use only. We also lose no burs!

This makes for better use of talent and time for the assistant.

Testimonial:

'You would be silly not to purchase these, they make life easier for both the dentist and nurse. No burs rattling around and falling on the floor mid treatment. Decontamination using these are a dream and has improved our cross infection massively. The variations of colours and sizes make it easier to make pre-made treatment bur sets' Jade Lawson, Lead Dental Nurse (Bupa Dental Care – Aug 2020)

BurButlers come in 4 sizes to help with the choices for each procedure.(5, 10, 25, 60).

It is not only safer and better. but its also very easy to use and both latch grip and friction grip can sit in any of the holes facilitating any combination of set-up of burs. The pressure that the burs are put in is the pressure that the burs come out and with the spacing between each bur this makes it easy for the dentist to remove the needed bur with gloved fingers while chair-side. 

With safer bur placement and the clear lids there is less risk that of a dentist or assistant/nurse from needle-stick injury.

If the BurButler happens to fall on the ground or spill (something that happens in every clinic at one stage or another) the burs don’t fall out.

Every dentist will like this bur stand, but assistants/nurse will really love them.

They are easy to use and make better use of time, rather than placing burs into old metal stand or in to stand that have never been autoclaved or for burs to fall out and need to be resorted and reprocessed.

Single use diamond burs are obligatory in some jurisdictions.

Even if you use single use burs, they have to be presented to the dentist chair-side in a manner that can be accessed without having to sort through packaging while wearing PPE. 

If this is your protocol, we recommend that you set your selection on the sterilised BurButler ready for use. 

In this case scenario we recommend that when the dentist has used a bur, it is NOT replaced in the BurButler but put in the inverted lid. This way any used burs can be identified, disposed of and replaced in the BurButler ready for the next patient.

In the cleaning room the BurButler can be refilled and placed into the washer/ disinfector, processed through the ultrasonic, place the lid on for autoclaving. The lid it is a clear lid that fits snugly and has ribbed sides that steam can penetrate. 

The BurButler can be pouched and processed.

The BEST and the only practice is to use a BurButler per patient for each patient

This process will “Break the Chain”. 

All burs must be tidy and in a placed in a bur stand.  Loose burs do not belong in drawers or in the autoclave, ultrasonic or the washer/disinfector! 

In some states in the USA is an offence to have loose burs. 

The BurButler allows best practice to organise, stock control, making bur management simple and easy and saving both time and money.

There are 6 colours, ( Pink, Blue, White, Purple, Black, Orange).

Varied kits can be set for different procedures or for different dentists to keep all their burs safe and easy to asses. It is all about planning and make the bur management into a circular process- removing wasting of time and stock control.