Dingman Cartilage Abrader, 15cm, Curved Left, Curved Right or Set of 2

What a Dingman cartilage abrader is

Everything else in this category works on bone. The Dingman cartilage abrader works on cartilage, and that one difference decides how the instrument is built, how it is held and what goes wrong when it is used too hard.

A graft is carved with a knife and then it has edges. Under thin nasal skin an edge shows, as a line the patient can see in a mirror and feel with a fingertip, and no amount of suturing hides it. The abrader is how the edge stops being an edge: a fine abrasive face taken across the margin at a shallow angle until it feathers into nothing.

Key design features

An abrasive face, not a blade

This matters more than it sounds. A blade on cartilage leaves a clean cut face and a new edge; an abrasive face removes a little at a time and leaves a taper. Cartilage also springs back from a cut and warps days later, which is the reason a graft is feathered rather than trimmed once it is close to final shape.

Curved left, curved right, or the pair

A graft has two margins and the surgeon works from one side of the table. A face curved the wrong way meets the margin on its corner and digs in. The handed pair is why most sets carry two of these rather than one, and the Set of 2 is the usual order for a tray that does its own graft carving.

Why 15cm and a pen grip

Graft work happens on the back table, under direct vision, with the cartilage held between finger and thumb. A long handle is in the way. At 15cm the instrument balances in a pen grip, which is the grip that gives the lightest touch, and light is the whole point here.

What a worn face feels like

A fresh abrasive face bites and stops. A worn one slides, and a sliding face makes a surgeon press harder, which is how a graft gets thinned through instead of feathered. If the instrument needs pressure, it is finished, and that is true long before anything looks wrong with it.

Which curve to order

These three are this product’s own option list. The curve is about which margin the face can meet flat; the abrasive is the same on all of them.

Where it is used

It belongs to graft work, so the list follows the grafts rather than the procedures.

What it abrades, and what it must leave alone

The important half of this table is the second one, because an abrasive face on the wrong tissue does damage that does not show until the swelling goes down.

How it compares with the other ways a graft edge is dressed

Three instruments turn up on the same back table for the same job, and they are not interchangeable.

Materials and finish

Every Dingman cartilage abrader we make is cut from high quality medical grade stainless steel. The steel itself is made to a German specification. We do not publish a grade number, because the number on a certificate tells a surgeon nothing about how an abrasive face holds up after fifty autoclave cycles, and the answer to that is in the finish rather than in the alloy.

The abrasive is on the face itself rather than bonded to it, so nothing can shed into a graft pocket, and the rest of the instrument is passivated and satin finished. The face wears smooth with use rather than chipping, which is a slow and honest kind of wear: the day it stops biting is the day it stops being accurate, and it is worth replacing then rather than pressing harder.

Caring for it

Rinse it before the case is cleared. Cartilage debris is softer than bone dust and it dries into the abrasive face like glue, and a loaded face slides instead of cutting, which on this instrument is the difference between feathering a graft and thinning a hole through it.

Soft nylon brush across the face, never wire, because wire polishes an abrasive and polishing is how this face dies. Enzymatic cleaner, ultrasonic cycle, deionized water rinse, dry fully, autoclave at 134 degrees Celsius. Store it so the face is not resting against another instrument.

Ordering and wholesale

The Dingman cartilage abrader is made in our own workshop and sold direct, which is why the price sits where it does against the catalogue houses. Order one for a single set, or in quantity for a hospital list or a distributor line; we do OEM work under your own brand and your own item numbers, and we will hold a run to your pattern rather than ours if you send a sample. Stock items ship from our own workshop. Backorder items take 10 to 12 working days to make. Every instrument carries a three year replacement warranty against manufacturing defects. Production is controlled under an ISO 13485 quality management system.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Dingman cartilage abrader used for?

Thinning and smoothing the edges of a cartilage graft in rhinoplasty, so the margin cannot be seen or felt through the skin once the graft is in place. It is a finishing instrument for graft work, not a cutting one.

What is the difference between an abrader and a cartilage knife?

A knife cuts a new face and leaves a new edge. An abrader removes a small amount across the margin and leaves a taper. A graft is carved with the knife and finished with the abrader, in that order, and the second step is what stops the edge showing.

Should I order the left, the right, or the set of two?

The set of two, if the tray carves its own grafts. A graft has two margins and a face curved the wrong way meets the edge on its corner, so the alternative is turning a thin piece of cartilage round in your fingers, which is how grafts get cracked.

What are the instruments used in plastic surgery?

On a rhinoplasty tray: knives and scissors for soft tissue, elevators to raise the envelope, retractors to hold it open, osteotomes and saws for bone, rasps to smooth bone, and a small group for cartilage, which is where this abrader belongs with the cartilage knives and the crushing forceps.

Can it be used on bone?

No, and it will be ruined by trying. A cartilage abrasive loads up on bone dust and stops working within a few passes. Bone has its own instruments in this category, from coarse toothed rasps down to diamond coated finishing faces.

Related products and categories

The instruments this one shares a tray with: Joseph bayonet nasal saw for the bone cut the graft is being shaped to fit, Fomon rasp, flat and convex double ended for the bony dorsum underneath it, and Gallaher bone and nasal rasp with finger ring where a bone margin needs a coarse face.

The full range is in raspatories and saws, and the tray this belongs to is in rhinoplasty instruments.