Bill the carpenter uses a cordless drill and numerous manual screwdrivers at his worksite.  Unfortunately, he has only one screwdriver bit for the cordless drill, but has 10 manual screwdrivers of various sizes.  Half the time he finds himself using the cordless drill and half the time he finds himself using the manual screwdrivers.  When asked why he doesn’t use the cordless drill more often, Bill replied, “I only have one screwdriver bit, but I need various sizes, so that’s where the manual screwdrivers come in”.  I hope the follow up question is painfully obvious at this point.  Why not buy more screwdriver bits of various sizes and stop killing yourself with the manual screwdrivers Bill?  Unfortunately, Bill is not the only one making this type of mistake.  Many hygienists make this same mistake at their worksites too.  They use only one universal ultrasonic tip, but have numerous hand instruments of “various sizes”.

Hygienists will fail to fully utilize their ultrasonic scalers, like Bill is failing to fully utilize his cordless drill, if they are only using universal tips.  Universal tips are powerful, and that’s good, but they will not give you the same access that a thin, perio tip (curved or straight) will give you.  And without that access, hygienists will end up hand scaling way more than they need to.  For me, hand scaling only supplements my ultrasonic scaling and it’s never the other way around.  So the moral of the story is this.  Don’t be like Bill.  Buy yourself some thin, perio tips.

When shopping for thin, perio tips, keep in mind that not all “thin” tips are really that thin.  In some cases, the so called thin tips feel almost identical to their universal tip counterparts (that’s been my experience).  I currently use Parkell brand tips (25K) with a Parkell Integra magnetostrictive scaler.  Parkell sells a universal tip, but I use Parkell’s Burnett Power tip as my universal tip.  The Burnett Power tip is longer, slightly thinner, and more powerful than the universal tip.  I also use Parkell’s straight perio tip for access.  The Burnett Power tip and the straight perio tip are my primary, daily, go to tips.  Parkell also sells curved (left and right configurations) perio tips that are very thin and long.  I use these on an as-needed-basis, which ends up being about 5-10% of the time.

If you are not currently using thin, perio tips, give them a try.  You’ll love them.  And while you’re at it, why not pick yourself up a nice cordless drill too.

Mark Frias, RDH