Surface engineering of Dental Tools with diamond for improved life and performance

Abstract

In this chapter the application of chemical vapour deposition technologies to dental burs and tools is presented. The types of dental burs and Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) technologies employed to surface engineer them are reviewed briefly. Hot Filament CVD is used as a case study to demonstrate the power of CVD to deposit adherent diamond coatings onto complex 3-D shapes presented by burs in the CVD reactor is highlighted. Diamond is a material with unique combination of excellent properties such as high hardness, chemical inertness and thermal conductivity which lends itself well to this application. Diamond has been applied to dental burs using a hot filament CVD technique. New methods have been developed for testing the performance and life of dental burs. A comparison of coated and uncoated burs has been made in terms of surface morphology, coating and substrate characteristics and the bur performances and life.