How many burs do you really need?

I never cease to be amazed how many burs the average dentist has in their crown preparation kit.I've been in office where there are upwards of 20 burs in all different shapes and sizes.The problem with having so many burs, especially if you use 6 or 7 or 8 of them for every preparation is that all the confusion and bur changes slow you down. Dramatically! I've seen preparation times in excess of 30 minutes which can cook the pulp.There is one bur that you can use start-to-finish to do 95% your posterior preparations — 847KR 016 red. In most cases it is the only bur I use to produce a perfect, textbook crown preparation.The bur has a nice taper and the rounded angle at the tip produces a beautiful curved chamfer at the crown margin. Using this bur you can produce a beautiful result in 5 minutes or less if you know what you are doing.This is one of over 40 clinical tips I give in my seminar, The Art of Efficient Dentistry. I still have some place left in Melbourne on 13 February and Sydney on 5 March. Come along and find out how to make your life much easier.