Dental Burs: How to Choose.

A bur is chosen by what it has to cut and by the chuck that will hold it. Diamond abrades enamel, porcelain, and ceramic. Carbide blades cut tooth, metal, and acrylic. A diamond loaded with soft dentin clogs. A carbide on ceramic chips or dulls at once. The diamond bur list is a shape catalog. This page is the choice between the two materials, and the shank that decides the handpiece.

How to choose a dental bur

• Material first. Coarse diamond reduces porcelain and enamel. Finer diamond finishes that surface. Carbide opens tooth, cuts metal, and trims acrylic. Do not pick the bur by color of the coating alone.
• Shank second. FG and FGSS are friction grip for a high-speed chuck. FGSS is the short shank. HP is the straight slow-speed shank. RA is the latch for a contra-angle. An FG bur will not latch into an RA head, and an RA bur in a high-speed chuck is the wrong instrument.
• Blade count is the carbide finish. A round carbide opens caries and access. A many-blade carbide finishes cured composite, amalgam, or ceramic. It smears composite that is still soft. Cure first.
• Single-use is a package, not a coating. A sterile pack is opened for that patient. A gold or titanium-nitride coating is not a sterile package.
• Tooth versus model. An HP bur marked for acrylic, plaster, or stone belongs on a lab motor or a slow-speed nosecone. It is not the operative friction-grip bur.

How diamond and carbide differ

Treat the table as the job, not a score. Grit colors are printed on the diamond you are holding. This page does not assign a color to a brand.

Diamond

Use diamond when the surface is enamel or a ceramic you are reducing or finishing. Coarse grit removes. Fine grit smooths. The band is marked on the bur. A disposable diamond is a single-use instrument. A multi-use diamond is sterilized and retired when the grit is bald. Neither one is sharpened like a blade, and neither one replaces a carbide round in soft caries. Shapes and millimeter heads live on the diamond list. Bring the shank back to this page before you order a latch diamond into a friction-grip handpiece.

Carbide shanks

FG and FGSS go in the high-speed. FGSS is short: the KaVo Kerr operative carbides on the old list are a family of FGSS shapes, not one ISO number, and the Meisinger HM 1 round is the specific short bur, size #4, with a 1.4 mm head. The listing gives that head diameter, not the overall length. Confirm the length before you call it a match for a micro head that only accepts a short bur.

HP is slow-speed or lab. Midwest’s straight fissure on this page is HP, so “operative” in the name does not make it a high-speed bur. Euro’s crosscut is HP at 2.35 mm and is for acrylic, plaster, and stone. Patterson’s gold titanium-nitride bur is also HP, for acrylic and metal in the lab. The listing’s “up to 10 times longer” line is the coating claim, not a wear test.

RA is the latch. Midwest Once #34 is the sterile inverted cone on an RA shank, for undercuts and a pulpal floor on a contra-angle. The image alt’s 2.35 mm is the usual RA shank diameter, not a promise that the #34 head is 2.35 mm. Confirm the cutting diameter on the box.

Finish, metal, and single-use

Meisinger’s 30-blade FG finishes cured composite, amalgam, or ceramic. It is not the HM 1 round, and it is not a substitute for a plastic instrument before the cure. Goldies MCD is the FG titanium-nitride bur for amalgam, gold, and nonprecious metal. Same gold color as the Patterson lab bur, different shank.

Three rows are the sterile single-use packs: SS White’s tapered-fissure FG, Midwest Once #1556 FG tapered fissure, and Midwest Once #34 RA. Once #1556 names the shape code. The SS White row does not, so do not treat them as the same bur. An opened sterile bur is finished with that patient.

Related guides

• Materials
• Air and electric handpieces
• Diamond bur shapes
• Curing lights

Bur questions

What is the difference between FG, FGSS, HP, and RA?

FG and FGSS lock into a high-speed friction-grip chuck. FGSS is the short version. HP is the straight slow-speed shank, 2.35 mm on the Euro crosscut. RA latches into a contra-angle. The handpiece guide is where those chucks are explained.

When do I pick a diamond instead of a carbide?

Diamond for enamel, porcelain, and ceramic. Carbide for tooth structure, metal, and acrylic. A diamond is the wrong bur in soft dentin. A carbide is the wrong bur on a ceramic crown you are only trying to reduce.