Dental handpiece and axial groove ball bearing

A dental handpiece for rotating a rotating dental tool, comprising:

• a housing that has a handle and a chuck for receiving the dental tool in the dental handpiece;
• a turbine which can be driven by compressed gas and/or compressed air and has a turbine wheel and a rotor shaft connected to the turbine wheel;
• wherein the rotor shaft is connected to the chuck to transmit the rotation of the turbine wheel to the chuck;
• and
• two axial groove ball bearings, which are arranged on an upper area and a lower area of the rotor shaft, wherein each axial groove ball bearing comprises a shaft disc, a housing disc, and a single row of rolling elements, the shaft disc and the housing disc are spaced apart in an axial direction of the rotor shaft and define opposing bearing surfaces that overlap in the axial direction of the rotor shaft, and the rolling elements are arranged between the shaft disc and the housing disc in the axial direction of the rotor shaft in contact with the opposing bearing surfaces;
• wherein the shaft disc of each axial groove ball bearing acts on the rotor shaft or is integrated with the turbine wheel;
• wherein the housing disc of each axial groove ball bearing is mounted in the housing;
• wherein the housing disc of each axial groove ball bearing has a projection extending in the axial direction, and the projection covers the rolling elements of each axial groove ball bearing on the outside;
• wherein a groove is defined on the inside of the projection and a step is defined on the outside of the shaft disc in the region of the groove;
• and
• wherein each axial groove ball bearing further comprises a snap ring configured to snap into the groove and engage with the step to retain the rolling elements between the shaft disc and the housing disc.