Frazier Suction Tubes

Description

Frazier suction tube, 15 cm

The Frazier pattern is the suction tip most operators picture when they think of fine-bore aspiration: a slim, gently angled shaft rising from a knurled hub, narrow enough to sit in a small field without crowding the instruments already in it. Intrace USA lists this Frazier suction tube in a 15 cm working length and in four bores, so one familiar shape can be matched to the amount of fluid you actually need to move.

Reading the French scale

Every size in this range carries a Fig. number on the French, or Charriere, scale: 6FR, 8FR, 10FR and 12FR. The scale is simpler than it looks, because a French number is just the outside circumference of the tube in millimetres. Divide it by three and you have the diameter. That is why 6FR measures 2 mm across, 8FR measures 2.7 mm, 10FR measures 3.3 mm and 12FR measures 4 mm. Once that arithmetic is clear you can read any Frazier tip’s bore straight off its Fig. number, whoever made it.

Choosing a bore

Bore governs two things at once, and they pull against each other. A wider lumen clears blood and irrigation faster, but it also takes up more room in the field and takes hold of soft tissue more readily when it rests against a wall. A narrow lumen is gentler and easier to place, yet it blocks sooner on clot or bone debris. Consequently most operators keep two bores on the tray rather than one: a fine tip for work close to a nerve or a membrane, and a wider tip for general clearance once the field has opened up.

• Fig. 6FR, 2 mm. The finest bore here. Suited to apical work, sinus membranes and any field where the tip has to sit beside delicate tissue.
• Fig. 8FR, 2.7 mm. A small step up in flow while still slim, and a common default for third molar sites.
• Fig. 10FR, 3.3 mm. Takes irrigation and light debris without dominating the field.
• Fig. 12FR, 4 mm. The widest in the range, for steady clearance where volume matters more than finesse.

Fifteen centimetres, and what that length is for

Length decides reach, and reach decides where an instrument feels comfortable. At 15 cm this tube is short enough that the hub stays in the palm and the hand stays out of the sightline, which is exactly what is wanted in the mouth, in a sinus approach, or in any shallow field being worked under a light. Deeper approaches ask for a longer shaft instead; for those we carry the same Frazier pattern at 19 cm, in seven sizes and with a fibre optic option.

The four bores side by side

All four are turned from surgical stainless steel, finished so that nothing catches on a glove, and hubbed to take standard suction tubing.

Keeping the lumen clear

A suction tube gives out at the lumen long before it gives out anywhere else, so rinse it through while the debris is still wet rather than after it has dried hard. Flush with water straight after use, pass a cleaning stylet or wire down the full length, then process as usual and autoclave. Dry it thoroughly before it returns to the tray, because moisture trapped in a narrow bore is where staining normally begins. Looked after that way, the finish holds for years.

Every Intrace USA instrument carries a warranty of three years against manufacturing defects.