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Professional Dental Tools

While simple tools like the toothbrush, toothpaste, floss and mouthwash accommodate your everyday oral hygiene needs, twice a year your teeth and gums experience a much more thorough cleaning from professional dental tools. Dentists wield a variety of precise tools to examine, clean and repair your teeth in ways you can't at home.

  1. Mouth Mirror

    • The only professional dental tool that does not physically manipulate the teeth may also be one of the most important. It consists of a pen light and a small, round mirror that reflects the light it captures back toward the examiner. Mouth mirrors allow a dentist to meticulously examine areas of the mouth that would otherwise remain unseen. This helps her detect oral cancer, dental disease and other serious oral diseases at early stages.

    Dental Probes and Picks

    • Dentists use several kinds of hand-held probes and picks to detect fissures and pits, potential cavities and problems with crowns and bridges. The most commonly used probe in a regular examination is the sickle or contra-angled probe. Other kinds of probes include the periodontal probe which measures the depth of pockets and the briault probe which helps detect cavities.

    Tooth Extracting Forceps

    • Tooth extracting forceps can be compared to a more precise version of a non-adjustable wrench. Designed especially to remove teeth, extracting forceps come in a wide variety of shapes, each labeled with an identifying number. Each one has a special arc or curvature to properly grip and adjust or remove individual teeth in certain situations. A common dental forceps procedure is the removal of painful, impacted or otherwise troublesome wisdom teeth.

    Dental Drill

    • Possibly the tool most deeply associated with dentistry is the dental drill. The dental drill displays versatility by smoothing and polishing teeth, repairing chips and filling cavities. It accomplishes this by rotating an attached bur at high speeds. Burs come in several shapes and sizes that suit certain purposes.

    Other Dental Tools

    • Dentists have many other professional tools in their arsenal that help make their work efficient and effective. Radiograph equipment allows dentists to see problems that can't be fully seen with just a mouth mirror and the naked eye. A disposable saliva ejector uses a low volume of suction to remove excess saliva from the patient's mouth. Cotton wool rolls and pellets may also be used for this purpose. For more intricate procedures dentists implement anesthesia via syringes and disposable needles to minimize pain. Lastly, college tweezers grip small objects to remove them from the mouth or place them inside the mouth.

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