summaryThe primary author, an experienced dentist, cut bovine enamel and dentine horizontally and vertically with diamond points driven by an air‐turbine, while the rotational cutting speeds and applied loads were simultaneously monitored. Three cutting techniques employed here were successive cutting with moderate force (S‐m); intermittent cutting with moderate force (I‐m); and intermittent cutting with a smaller force (I‐s). It was found that the cut contact time of S‐m, I‐m, and I‐s cuts were about 10s, 0.4s and 0.25s, respectively. The maximum applied load during cutting varied, depending upon the cutting direction and the cutting technique. Vertical S‐m cut of enamel resulted in the largest applied load of around 105g, while horizontal I‐s cut of dentine brought about the minimum (approximately 35g). Cutting volumes of dentine tended to exceed those of enamel. It was confirmed that the I‐m cut produced larger cutting effectiveness of diamond points on both enamel and dentine compar