Suction units in dental technology

Suction units in dental technology

In the dental laboratory suction units remove harmful fumes and dust from the air. This also avoids contamination of materials, equipment and instruments.

Electrically operated extractors are used as single, dual or multiple units as well as laboratory suction units for use at many technical workstations or dust-generating machines such as sandblasters or polishing motors. Suction units are in principle differentiated between "dry suction" (e.g. for sandblasters) and "wet suction" (e.g. for dental laboratory turbines). Generally, the aim is to position the suction as near to the location where the dust is generated as possible. In addition to the more common stationary units, mobile versions are also available.

Suction units have the following technical components:

  • The motor produces the suction, the intensity of which is given as "volume flow" ("standard cubic metre" or "standard litre" per unit of time with standard values for pressure, temperature and moisture). It is – in particular due to frequent switching on and off – exposed to high stress, which often results in only a low service life (= number of operating hours). Intelligent controls not only allow selection between continuous operation and operation as required (automatic switch on with the respective working unit) but also settings to suit requirements.
  • Depending on the configuration of blower/ventilator in relation to the motor, the unit is described as a negative pressure or positive pressure system.
  • Extracted particles are gathered in a collector (e.g. in the form of a dust bag).
  • Various filters with several different "filter classes" are particularly important for keeping the air clean. Coarse and fine dust filters retain particles with a diameter of between 1 µm and in excess of 10 µm; fine dust filters (particle size < 1 µm) with a filtration efficiency of over 99.9% also filter smoke, bacteria and aerosols. In addition to the mechanical filter function, active carbon filters also have a chemical cleaning effect due to adsorption and/or reduction.
  • The actual suction is created via a suction hose, suction tube or suction channel terminating directly at the dental laboratory workstation from a chamber, which is sealed from the external environment (e.g. blasting chamber of a sandblaster) or open, e.g. with a "suction cup". A suction box that can be connected to the extractor prevents contamination of the remaining working environment and enables the suction effect to be focussed more accurately.