Patient and User Burns from Rotary Surgical Handpieces

HPN in their daily news update on 12/13/07 have reported that the FDA has issued an alert about serious patient injuries, including third degree burns, associated with the use of poorly maintained electric dental handpieces, and to recommend specific actions to prevent or minimize the problem. While this notification is directed to dental health professionals, the following information may be useful to all users of electric handpieces.

Patients have been severely burned when poorly maintained electric dental handpieces were used during dental procedures. Some patients had third degree burns which required plastic surgery. Burns may not be apparent to the operator or the patient until after the tissue damage has been done, because the anesthetized patient cannot feel the tissue burning and the handpiece housing insulates the operator from the heated attachment. Although the reported burns have occurred during cutting of tooth and bone, tooth extraction and other dental surgical procedures, overheating could occur during any dental procedure. Note that this problem is not limited to dentistry. Rotary surgical handpieces can cause patient burns during orthopedic procedures, as reported in the July 2003 edition of FDA Patient Safety News.

Please go to this FDA link for more detailed information on this subject.

http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/psn/show17-burns.html