what size of the dental bur shall you use?

What is the bur shank?

Before you acquire about the bur shank. Let’s know about the dental bur. The dental burs are the tool made of steel, stainless steel, tungsten carbide burs and diamond grit to cut the hard tissues like bone or tooth. All the dental burs are consisted by a head, the neck and a shank. The heads are made by different material like stainless steel, tungsten carbide bur and diamond grit to cater different purpose. Then come to the neck which connects the head and the shank. The shanks are usually made of stainless steel and have the different end to attach or insert to the handpiece machines.

There are three main often used shank types. Long straight (short term for HP) shank, standard length Friction grip shank (FG) and Latch angle (LA) shank.

FG shank bur is mostly used on the high speed turbine handpiece tool. HP shank burs are suitable to use on the straight low speed handpiece. The Latch angle LA shank bur is working on the contra angle slow speed handpiece.

FG shank diamter is 1.6mm（1/16 inch）. Latch-type Shank (RA) shank is generally 20 mm in length with a 2.35 mm diameter and fits in low speed handpieces and contra angles. Latch-type shanks often available with the same shapes as Friction grip (FG)shanks. HP shank diameter is 2.35mm(3/32 inch).