Choosing the Right Air Compressor for your Dental Office
Understanding Dental Air Compressors
The dental air compressor is a fundamental machine in any dental practice. Along with the dental vacuum system, the dental compressor forms the heart of your practice: unseen by patients, but essential for their care. A compressor creates high-quality, high-pressure air, which is delivered through dedicated lines to operatories, where it powers handpieces, milling machines, and other tools. Without the high-quality dry air provided by a good compressor, your dental handpieces and other equipment will not perform at their highest level, and patient care may be compromised.
As technology advances and choices continue to expand, selecting the correct dental air compressor has become increasingly important. If a new machine is improperly sized for a practice or does not have the features that align with optimal dental care, your practice may face costly equipment downtime or timely replacement of composite fillings.
It's difficult to earn a patient's trust. After years of investing in your practice, education, and staff, losing patients to outdated or failing Dental Air Compressor is simply too high of a price to pay.
We know that time is Money and we also know that people have a fear of the dentist. So, why subject yourself and your patients to being rescheduled if your air compressor is out of commission or very old and on its last leg. You do not even have a denist office with out a good dental Air compressor or Dental Vaccum unit. So you have to ask yourself, do you want to be down for 1 to 3 days while you look for and order a Dental Air Compressor. What is your daily production that you are losing if your office is down? I can guarantee that buying a new Dental Air compressor to avoid having down time and rescheduling all those patients is more efficient than waiting for the air compressor to break.
Size of Your Dental Practice and choosing a Dental Air Compressor
Size is a fundamental consideration when selecting the correct dental air compressor for your practice. Larger practices with multiple operatories, a high number of users, and a variety of tools require higher capacity compressors.
Along with the overall size of the practice, CFM (Cubic Feet per Minute) ratings are an important factor when choosing a Dental Air compressor. A CFM rating indicates the compressor's capacity to supply the required amount of air for various applications. This helps determine whether a compressor can meet the demands of specific tools or equipment in terms of air flow and pressure.
Precision is essential in dentistry, but for tools to be precise, they need to create enough speed and torque.
The right amount of pressure makes it possible. Commonly, these pressure requirements are listed in BAR. Many dental handpieces will post a 2-5 BAR requirement Or around 40 PSI. 1 BAR is roughly equivalent to 14.5 PSI.
To account for pressure drops, Leaks, and multiple stations, you'll want to go higher. Air with too little pressure can ruin tools, interrupt procedures, and possibly hurt your reputation.
A good rule of thumb for choosing a Dental Air Compressor is 2 CFM @40PSI per Station/Operatory. This should be the minimum guide to follow when buying a Dental Air Compressor. There are other factors also. but this is a good start. the Bigger the tank will give you More CFM and let the motors rest longer before they kick on again to fill the tank. This prolongs the life of the Dental Air Compressor all Together. The motors will run less time in the duty cycle than with a small tank. A small Air tank will depend more on the mOtors to give it the CFM rating and will require a longer Running Cycle on the motors. This is why you must over size a Dental Air Compressor and Vacuum Pump.
Drying Systems
The single most important attribute to any dental air compressor is the purity of the air passing from equipment to tool and eventually, into the patient's mouth. Dirty, moist air picked up from even the most seemingly sterile environment, can breed dangerous microorganisms, bacteria, and pathogens.
Moisture and contamination can also negatively interact with compounds used in restorations and lead to premature breakdown.
Having a reliable supply of high-quality, dry air is crucial for any dental practice. Dry air prevents bacteria growth, promoting infection control. There are two main types of drying systems for dental air compressors: membrane and desiccant systems. Membrane systems use semi-permeable substances to allow water vapor passage, which offers only moderate drying capability. These systems can call for regular downtime to allow the system to purge excess moisture.
If you don't have a Dental Air compressor and you just buy a regular air compressor you will start to see your composite fillings falling out. This is do to the clean air that is required and produced in a Dental Air Compressor. Standard Air compressors do not care about cleanliness or if oil is in the line. All of this dirty air will be delivered to the patient and that is what makes your composite fillings fail. standrad air compressors let oil and debris in the line and into the patients mouth. Having any amount of oil on a patients tooth before a composite filling will cause it to fail in the future. That is why Dental Air Compressors are more Expensive than standard air compressors. Because they have Extra Air drying systems and Automatic tank purging systems to get the air as clean and as dry as possible.
