Dentist Tools

A dentist's tools often look like torture devices, but knowing about their purpose may help ease those fears about visiting the dentist. There are tools designed to clean, examine or restore teeth.

Dental Mirror

A dental mirror is a small, sometimes double-sided hand-held mirror that fits in your mouth. Dental hygienists use this tool to examine your teeth. There are some teeth, or parts of your teeth, that may be difficult to see. The dental mirror makes those impossible examination spots accessible. It also provides a view from a variety of different angles.

Sickle Probe

A dental explorer is a tool with a curved sickle probe on one side and a periodontal probe on the other. The curved end of the sickle probe is used in dental examination, to test hard structures like your teeth, to make sure they are in fact hard. If your teeth or parts of your teeth are soft, they are not healthy. This tool is also used to find any pits in your teeth, plaque, tartar and other build-up on your teeth.

Periodontal Probe

A periodontal probe is used to measure the part of your gum that is not attached to your teeth. It is healthy for a small portion of your gum to be unattached to your teeth. However, if you have a larger amount of unattached gum, called a periodontal pocket, you may have gum disease. That is why the probe is one of the most important dentist tools.

Scaler

The scalers are tools used for cleaning. They can look frightening to people. They are curved metal hooks used to remove plaque and any other build-up from your teeth and from in between your teeth. Another reason that some people dread going to the dentist is because the use of these tools can sometimes cause pain. Whether or not the scaling process is painful is dependent on how long it's been since your last cleaning, and how much plaque has accumulated on your teeth in that time.

Polisher

The tooth polisher is used along with a toothpaste made specifically for polishing, to make your teeth smooth. The polisher is a handheld tool that has a rubber piece at the top that rotates. This tool not only buffs your teeth and makes them shine, it also gets rid of any plaque that was left behind from the scalers. This tool doesn't cause pain but can cause a ticklish sensation.

Drill

Sometimes dentists may need to remove decay from your teeth, and fill the hole the decay leaves behind. The tool used in this process is a dental drill. A drill is a handheld tool that rotates a dental bur at different speeds. These dental burs are used in any tooth restoration processes--like filling cavities or repairing chips--to smooth the surface of your tooth, or to remove damaged tooth tissue.