Dental tools or instruments are used inside a dental clinic to give proper dental treatment to the patients. These tools are used for examining, manipulating, treating & removing teeth. By understanding what each tool accomplishes, you will be more confident visiting the dentists, every time the dentist goes near your mouth. Here is a brief summary of the tools used during dental practice. These tools are classified into two categories: Cutting tools & Non-Cutting tools.
Hand Instruments used in Dental Practice:
Cutting Tools:
1-Excavators:
a-Ordinary Hatchet:
This tool has a unique cutting head of the blade directed in the same plane as that of the long axis of the handle. This instrument is specially used for anterior teeth for preparation of retentive areas & to sharpen internal line angles.
b-Hoe Excavator:
Hoe excavator has primary cutting edge of the blade in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the handle. This instrument is used for planning tooth preparation walls & making line angles.
c- Angle Former Excavator:
It’s mon-angled & has the primary cutting edge at an angle other than 90 degrees to the blade. It is usually available in pairs (left & right). It is particularly used for sharpening line angles. Its is also used in placing a bevel on enamel margins.
d-Spoon Excavator:
Spoon excavator has slightly curved blades while the shanks may be bit-angled in order to facilitate accessibility. Spoon excavators further has two categories one is discoid & one is cleoid. In discoid the cutting edges are circular while in cleoid the cutting edges are claw like.
2-Chisels:
a-Straight Chisel:
The straight chisel has usually a straight blade, with its bevel on one side. The axis of the handle is perpendicular to the primary edge.
b-Curved Chisel:
The curved chisel has usually a curved blade with a bin-angled blade of the chisel.
c-Enamel Hatchet:
Enamel Hatchet is almost similar to Ordinary Hatchet Excavator the only difference lies in the fact that Enamel Hatchet has a larger, heavier & beveled on one side. Its cutting edges in a plane that are parallel to the axis of the handle. It is usually used for cutting the enamel.
d-Gingival Margin Trimmer:
Gingival Margin is similar in shape & design with Enamel Hatchet only difference is that its blade is curved. It has further two types right & left types. Right pair is for distal gingival margins & left pair for distal margins. It is used for beveling of the gingival margins, beveling
of axiopulpal line angle & performing a gingival lock.
3-Other Cutting Instruments:
a-Scalers:
Even after regular brushing a plague gradually builds up. Plague develops when you eat or drink something. It combines with saliva to produce bacteria that become acidic afterwards & results in breaking of tooth enamel. Plague hardens into a tartar & it adheres to the surface of
the teeth. It is visible in yellow color as a stain. Dentist gently removes the tartar with the use of scalers by carefully scraping deposits from the surface of each tooth. There are usually two types of scalers powered & hand-held scalers. Powered scalers use ultrasonic frequencies to remove plague. We spray air & water in your mouth to keep the instrument cool. This is relatively a comfortable method. Whereas hand held scalers are metal shaped. We use these to remove deposits surface of the teeth.
b-Carvers:
Carvers are the dental instruments with a sharp edge for working purpose usually used for removing excess material & contour surfaces.
Non Cutting Tools:
a-Amalgam Condenser:
It’s a dental instrument used for compacting silver amalgam in a plastic state, used for restoring the natural contour of the teeth. The Amalgam Condensers come in single & double sized designs. We have various sized & shaped working ends, which may be smooth or serrated.
b-Mouth Mirrors:
We use a mirror to examine all the surfaces of each tooth, down your throat & roof of mouth. Mirrors allow us to see a proper image of our teeth with all the surface covered next to gum & the gums present at the back of your mouth. We shine a bright light which reflects off a mirror in order to see irregularities, gums, swelling & deposits. It allows us to see decay between your teeth even if you’re experiencing the early stages of gum disease. We basically use mirrors to see or examine the areas of the teeth by holding your tongue, lips & cheeks which are not much visible.
c-Probe:
A probe is an instrument used in dentistry for dental armamentarium. It is dimensionally long thin & blunted at the end. Particular use of probe is to maintain accuracy. We use probe in order to measure pocket depths around a teeth in order to create state of health of the periodontium. Probes are marked to know about accuracy & readability.
d-Autoclave
How are these tools sterilized and cleaned for re-used? There is a machine that helps with this as well and it’s a called an autoclave. This device is a simple steam pressure “oven” that helps kill all microorganisms, bacteria, and other infected materials inside the chamber. This is the safest and most sanitized way to re-use these dental tools.
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