SS White FG Carbide Burs: Fissure & End Cutting · 1558 short shank · Bulk 100

• Specialty carbides — A shape made for one particular task, next to the general operative, finishing, surgical and laboratory ranges on the same shelf.
• Operative carbides — Cuts tooth structure; a review notes that burs used in finishing are for initial gross reduction and leave a surface that still needs polishing.
• Finishing carbides — Many fine blades for refining form, rather than a few edges for cutting a cavity.
• Surgical carbides — Cuts bone rather than a cavity in a tooth, and comes on the longer shanks the shelf carries for that work.
• Laboratory carbides — Used on the bench, on appliances and prostheses, not in the mouth.
• Cross-cut burs — Named for its toothing rather than for the job it is kept for, and cut from the same tungsten carbide as the rest of the shelf.
• Carbide bur kits — An assortment in one block, in place of single burs.

Shape: ISO 6360-2 gives a three-digit code for the shapes of all dental rotary instruments, which forms the third group of digits in a fifteen-digit identification number. ISO 6360-1 explains that number and codes the material of the working part, the shank and the overall length of the instrument.

Shank: the shaft section may be friction gripping or latch-type in form. ISO 1797 sets the dimensions and material properties of shanks for rotary and oscillating instruments used in dentistry.

Reuse: published guidance says to consider items difficult to clean, carbide and diamond burs among them, as single-use disposables and discard them after one use.

Sterilizing: unsaturated chemical vapour sterilization of carbon steel instruments causes less corrosion than steam because of the low level of water present during the cycle, and dry heat is used for materials that might be damaged by moist heat.