As a practice owner, you’re always looking for ways to save a few bucks here and there. It’s just good business.
That said, some financial shortcuts wind up costing you a lot more in the long run — not just financially, but also in terms of your reputation.
When it comes to dental handpiece repair parts, cutting corners can lead to very serious consequences.
When Cheap Handpiece Parts Cost More
If you’ve ever shopped around for repair parts yourself, there’s a good chance you’ve cringed at the price tag on high-quality aftermarket and OEM parts and equipment.
Especially when you’re seeing advertisements for websites like eBay, Alibaba, and Wish listing repair parts for a fraction of the cost.
And it’s not just you who balks at the price of branded repair parts — unless the customer specifies otherwise, many handpiece repair companies use cheaper parts by default.
Unfortunately, when it comes to dental handpiece repair parts, it’s true that “you get what you pay for.”
Cheap parts can damage the rest of your (expensive) handpiece, interfere with your workflow, or even endanger patients.
Quality handpiece parts, on the other hand, help you do your job better and more confidently.
Let’s look at the reasons you should be cautious when buying handpiece repair parts, as well as tips to ensure you get the quality you need.
Buying Handpiece Parts: Why You Shouldn’t Go Cheap
When it comes to your business, quality should always come first. Cheap handpiece parts are never worth the risk of disrupting your workflow or compromising patient care.
1. Cheap Handpiece Repair Parts Fail Sooner
Low-cost dental handpiece repair parts are usually manufactured with low-quality materials that wear out quickly. As a result, the handpiece is prone to failure and requires repair sooner rather than later.
It is common to have to replace a cheap part twice or even three times over to equal the lifespan of a single high-quality part.
Overheating, excessive noise, inadequate cutting, or gear grinding could all be signs of a low-quality repair part.
2. Cheap Parts Can Damage Expensive Parts
Even if cheap parts seem to ‘fit’ your handpiece just fine, they won’t last or maximize the expected lifetime for the handpiece.
The use of low-quality dental handpieces has been shown to be linked with more frequent mechanical failures, which consequently leads to more unplanned repairs.
These failures are often more expensive than routine repairs and can result in much higher overhead costs.
3. Cheap Parts are a Legal Liability
When it comes to dental handpieces, precision is absolutely crucial. In most cases, cheaper alternatives are not compliant with FDA guidelines or industry quality standards.
Thus, a handpiece that has been repaired with cheap or counterfeit parts is more likely to malfunction, which poses a serious safety risk to your patients.
You even don’t want to think about the possibility of a broken bur getting stuck in the patient’s mouth or throat. This could not only result in serious harm to your patient, but it may also result in costly legal claims against you.
4. Cheap Parts Make You Less Productive
Sending a handpiece for repair means it’s no longer on hand for you to use on patients. The result is more downtime as you spend more time reprocessing other handpieces between patients.
When a dental handpiece is out of commission for a long period because of a poor repair, it will hurt your practice’s productivity, which could have been prevented just by using high-quality parts during the initial repair.
Tips for a Quality Handpiece Repair
Now that we have a better understanding of the risks, it is important to know how to identify quality repair parts.
Follow these tips to ensure your handpiece performs like new again:
- If you outsource your handpiece repairs to a third party, make sure they repair your handpiece using only high-quality aftermarket or OEM parts. Always ask — never assume!
- Choose trusted handpiece manufacturers who maintain ISO certification and obtain full FDA registration for their products.
- Read product reviews and testimonials from other dental professionals before purchasing repair parts.
- Do not buy handpiece parts from unknown manufacturers without verifying their credentials. As we like to say, “Beware of parts unknown!”
- Never purchase handpiece parts listed below market value on websites like eBay, Alibaba, and Wish. If the price is too good to be true, these are likely counterfeits.
You want your dental handpiece to be as reliable as possible and minimize costly repairs in the long run. Cheap handpiece parts may seem like a good deal at first, but they invariably cost you more in the long run!
When you purchase quality dental handpiece repair parts from a North American company like Sable, you can rest assured that the part will last and work as well as the original.
Sable Industries carries a complete line-up of premium quality air driven handpiece parts, electric 1:5 speed increaser parts, and a variety of small equipment parts. To learn more about our high quality dental handpiece repair parts, visit our product pages or contact us with any questions. We are happy to help!