Explains how to recognise abrasive materials by origin and hardness on the Mohs scale, with a table of common abrasives such as diamond, corundum, emery, garnet, quartz and carborundum. Goes on to instrument types like steel and tungsten carbide burs, diamond burs, cutters, stones, separators and rubbers, then how diamond bur colours indicate crystal size, how head shapes are named, and how to read the 13-digit ISO number.
Topic 14 of 52 in the MU Sofia syllabus for Dental Materials (Dental Medicine, Year 1). The free AceMed note covers it in 6 sections, about 131 words (2 min of reading), with 11 flashcards.
In this note
Introduction
Identifying the abrasive material
Identifying the instrument
Reading diamond bur colors
Reading the shape
Reading the ISO number
Introduction
Identifying abrasive materials means recognizing an abrasive or an instrument by what it is made of, its grit, and its shape. This matters because the wrong tool wastes time, overheats tissue or spoils a surface.
Identifying the abrasive material
The Mohs scale is used to compare abrasive materials by scratching. An abrasive must be harder than the surface it works on.
Reading the shape
Heads come in many shapes: spherical, cylindrical, conical, flame, needle, ovoid, pear, inverted cone and torpedo.
Reading the ISO number
Every abrasive instrument has a 13-digit ISO number. The first three digits give the material of the head. The next three give the shank length and attachment. The next four give the shape and abrasive size, and the last three give the largest head diameter in tenths of a millimeter. Makers also use their own shorter catalog numbers.
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