Purpose <p>Thermal necrosis following bone drilling is a serious threat to orthopedic surgeries as it can cause irreversible damage to bone cells and failure of fracture treatment. Part of the bone temperature rise is due to chip formation while the other part is related to the heat sources of drill bit-hole wall friction as well as chip-hole wall friction. The present study has examined reduction of frictional heating by changing the drill bit design.</p> Methods <p>Drilling tests were performed on 31 states of drill bits with different designs under conditions of rotational speed of 1000 rpm, feed rate of 50 mm/min, and hole depth of 8 mm on the bovine femur.</p> Results <p>The change in the diameter and length of the different sections of the drill bit had a significant influence on the bone temperature rise; in 21 cases it led to a reduction, while in 6 cases it resulted in an increase in the temperature compared to the result of the standard drill (<i>T</i>_<i>m</i> = 24 °C). Further, using statistical analysis through <i>Minitab</i> software, a statistical model of bone temperature rise was developed based on the drill geometry and optimal values for the drill bit geometry were extracted.</p> Conclusion <p>The validation test performed on the optimal drill bit revealed an acceptable agreement of its result (<i>T</i>_<i>m</i> = 8.6 °C) with the value predicted by statistical analysis (<i>T</i>_<i>m</i> = 8.8 °C) as well as the possibility of preventing thermal necrosis by applying this new design for the drill bit, compared with other methods of drilling.</p>