The most common reason for power loss in handpieces is bearing failure. Your dental handpiece is similar to a car engine, that is, without oil in the sump, the engine will sieze. Considering that your car engine probably has an RPM limit of 6-8,000 RPM and your high speed handpieces run at between 250-350,000 RPM, it becomes obvious the stress these bearings are under and the necessity for regular lubrication.
"O" rings support the bearings inside the handpieces head and help to control vibration. With age and autoclaving, they shrink and become brittle, causing vibration, premature bearing wear, and allowing the burr to move sideways under pressure.
As in the case of a car engine, it does not matter how high the quality of parts used - insufficiant lubrication equals almost immediate failure of bearings.
Manufacturers of bearings stipulate, "It is absolutely essential that bearings are properly lubricated at every autoclave cycle, preferably before and after, this ensures an expected life of up to 600 cycles."
Ideally, where dental handpieces have been regularly maintained, the bearings should have a lifespan of up to 600 autoclave cycles.
Handpieces should be autoclaved between patients, making it extremely important that staff are diligent in carrying out maintainence routines in the surgery in order to ensure the lifetime of your equipment.
If bearings fail a short time after replacement, this would indicate a severe issue in the use of a handpiece, its maintainence, or even both.
Upon examiniation of your handpieces it will be quite obvious what the cause of bearing failure is. We wish to ensure you are not charged a repair fee where bearings have failed due to poor maintainence. In cases where poor maintainence is suspected, or operator fault is the cause of failure, your warranty will be voided.