DENTAL HANDPIECE ASSEMBLY

摘要

A gas driven medical or dental handpiece assembly of the type having a turbine driven dental tool. A sterile coolant supply is usable with the handpiece to provide liquid fluid under pressure to irriagate the patient site and cool the dental tool. The coolant fluid is derived from a cartridge connected to the handpiece. The cartridge is replaced for each patient. The cartridge is divided by a flexible diaphram into a propellant chamber and a liquid chamber. Initially the liquid chamber is full and the propellant chamber is empty with virtually a volume of zero. A propellant gas under pressure is introduced into the propellant chamber of the cartridge to displace the diaphram and move the liquid through a fluid conduit to the tip of the handpiece. The propellant is derived from a portion of the compressed gas used to drive the turbine. Another portion of the compressed gas is diverted to a chip air conduit of the handpiece. The handpiece assembly eliminates the use of the conventional common water supply as irrigant or coolant fluid. Use of the removeable fluid cartridge allows sterilization of the entire handpiece eliminating much of the risk of cross contamination between patients.