Different dental instruments are used in the dental practice, by dentists as well as by dental assistants. All instruments are an aid to achieve the best medical and aesthetic result.
What are dental instruments?
Instruments represent the totality of all usable tools in a dental practice. This includes disposable items, as well as materials that can be reprocessed. These tools are always made of materials that can withstand high heat, pressure and chemicals in order to be reprocessed aseptically.
Shapes, types and kinds
Instrumentation represents the totality of all usable tools in a practice. This includes disposable items, as well as materials that can be reprocessed. General instrumentation includes steel instruments for examining the oral cavity and for modeling and plugging filling materials. Suction cups, curettes and scalers mainly belong to the work area of the specialist assistant. Grinding instruments such as drills, burs and polishers are used in conservative and surgical therapy, as well as for processing dental prostheses, both metal and plastic. Instruments for root canal treatment are also used there. In surgery, the dentist mainly uses syringe, various levers and forceps.
Structure and mode of operation
Steel instruments include the basic set, consisting of a mirror, probe and forceps, and modeling instruments, which are spherical or pear-shaped, and the Heidemann spatula, which has two smooth, flat sides. The suction cups are of different shapes. The small suction cup is flexible and features a small, sieve-like, removable cap. The large teat is rigid, while also being adapted to anatomical conditions by a slight curvature and flat design of the back. Both are made of plastic. Diamond drills and carbide drills are available in different shapes for the variable applications and required shaping, including torpedo-shaped, flame-shaped or pear-shaped types. In addition, diamond drills have different grit sizes. They also require water to be cooled at the high speed. Polishers are made of hard rubber or stone and, like carbide and diamond drills, have different shapes. Millers are mainly made of carbide and have different cutting edges. Curettes and scalers have two sharp edges. The scaler, unlike the curette, has a sharp tip. The specialized trade offers simply curved or wave-shaped curettes so that all sides of a tooth can be reached and cleaned. When a tooth is extracted, levers and forceps are used, as well as a syringe for anesthesia. The syringe has a metal housing that holds the ampoule with the anesthetic, which in some forms of syringes still has a burst protection, because some types have a high pressure. A plunger pushes the agent forward so that it can be injected slowly or intermittently. The lever has a prominent handle so that it fits securely in the hand and sufficient force can be transmitted. Depending on the application, the forceps has branches that are vertical or horizontal at 90°degrees. The handles usually have a rougher surface for a secure grip. For root canal treatment, files are used whose structures resemble a thread form. They vary in diameter and are either rigid or flexible, and can be controlled by hand or machine.
Medical and health benefits
The basic set of instruments is used primarily for examining the teeth. The mirror is used to view the different sides of the teeth, but also to hold the tongue away or to fix the cotton rolls. The probe is used to scan the teeth for protruding filling margins and to check for soft, decayed areas. Tweezers are used to insert or remove materials from the mouth. The suction cups are used to keep the teeth dry. The small saliva ejector picks up saliva by means of negative pressure and is supportive to the absorbent cotton roller. The large aspirator draws in the aerosol which cools the drills during their high rotation. In addition, the flat-shaped rear side keeps cheek mucosa or tongue away so that the risk of injury from the drill is prevented.The various drills are needed for careful removal of caries, shaping for fillings or preparing teeth for fixed dentures. For the removal of carious substance, the dentist uses the spherical rose drill. He uses the sharp edges to peel the soft, carious substance from the tooth layer by layer. Carbide drills are used when preparing the tooth so that a filling can be placed, for example. To prepare a tooth for a crown, the enamel must be removed. Since enamel is the hardest substance in the body, a diamond drill must be used. This can be used to remove the enamel and grind the tooth into the required shape. After placing a filling or grinding in fixed dentures, e.g. crowns or bridges, the surfaces are smoothed using polishers.Millers are used to remove pressure points on removable dentures. Curettes and scalers are used to remove hard plaque, both above and as calculus, below the gum. Using a lever, the dentist loosens the tooth in the tooth socket and pushes it upwards even slightly. With the aid of forceps, he can securely grasp the tooth and remove it from the mouth with levering movements, without severely damaging surrounding tissue. The files used in root canal treatment remove dead nerve tissue and then tissue from the root canal wall to clean the tooth for further treatment and increase access.
