dental engine

A dental engine is a large chair-side appliance (often including the chair itself) for use in a dentist's office.

At minimum, a dental engine serves as a source of mechanical or pneumatic power for one or more handpieces.

Known as a dental engine, it is fitted with special burs, microscopic cutting heads, and used for the tiniest detail work (which also requires a magnifying glass).

The term "dental drill" is considered the more colloquial form of the term "dental handpiece," although it can also be construed as to include the power source for one or more handpieces, a "dental engine."

The ancillary tool (generally part of a dental engine) used to supply either water or air to the oral cavity for the purpose of cleaning debris away from the area the dentist is working on, is also referred to as a dental syringe.

A six-inch boxwood skeleton of a spry deinonychus dinosaur, a royal coat of arms, carousel horses, wildlife and stagecoaches are carved from hard-grained fruitwoods with dental engines, jeweler's tweezers and an array of miniature planes, chisels and knives that the artist has fashioned for himself.