Many people avoid making regular trips to the dentist out of fear. A lot of this fear is tied to a less than adequate understanding of the various types of procedures and tools that are employed during the average dental visit. If you would like to help allay such fears by increasing your understanding of basic dentistry instruments, read on.
Dental Explorers
Dental explorers are a category of tool that is fairly faithful to their name: they are used to help your dentist explore the inside of your mouth, with the ultimate goal of locating any cavities or other problem areas. The relatively benign nature of dental explorers is undermined by the fact that, when you happen to glimpse them sitting in their tray next to the exam chair, they can appear quite intimidating. Fortunately, you'll be a lot less scared of these metal tools once you understand their purposes a bit better.
Straight/Curved Explorer
The straight/curved explorer is a single instrument with two differently shaped tools at each end. Both ends are designed to allow your dentist to make an inspection of the occlusal portions of your teeth. At first this doesn't make much sense to many people. After all, they reason, why does the dentist need a special tool to inspect parts of your teeth that they can see?
The idea here is that the tool allows your dentist to actually feel any abnormalities, especially those that would indicate disease or decay. Such abnormalities are often too subtle to distinguish with the eye alone. In order to provide the most sensitive information about the surface of your tooth, the ends of the straight/curved explorer are generally quite sharp.
Interproximal Explorer
The interproximal explorer is meant to serve basically the same function as the straight/curved explorer. The key difference is the parts of the teeth that this explorer is meant to access. The angled tip of an interproximal explorer allows it to more easily explore the rear sides of the teeth. Likewise, its especially slim profile allows it to be used for exploring between adjacent teeth.
Periodontal Probe
The periodontal probe is a type of tool often confused for an explorer. Yet it is distinguished by a pair of key differences. First, the tip of a periodontal probe is much more blunt than that of an explorer. This allows it to be used to examine the gums more safely. Second, the length of the tip is scored with notches that permit your dentist to measure how deep your periodontal pockets are.
For more information, you will want to check out Renovo Endodontic Studio.
Share9 May 2017
Hi, my name is Kevin Nelson and I want to tell you about my experience. I had a painful tooth so I went to see my dentist. After the examination, he said that I needed to have a root canal to save the tooth. I told the dentist to just pull the tooth instead and then he explained why that wasn't a good idea. He said that pulling the tooth would cause additional problems and then he told me what could happen. I didn't want any more problems, so the dentist did the root canal and I'm glad that he did. I wanted to write a blog to tell others about the benefits of a root canal and what to expect during the procedure. I hope that by getting the word out, other people won't make the same mistake that I almost did by getting a perfectly good tooth pulled.