If you have been to a dental clinic, you will find yourself amused at the numerous dental tools and equipments that a dentist makes use of in providing dental treatments. A dentist must be equipped with these equipments in order to provide good if not excellent service to his or her patients.

Examination is the foremost process in any dental appointments. The dentition are inspected and tissues/gum tissues are visually accessed through special tools such as:

• Dental Mirrors, which provides mirror images of teeth located inside the mouth that is difficult or impossible to see from the front on angle. For example behind the teeth.
• Probes such as sickle probe, periodontal probe and straight probes are utilized to measure gum pocket depths for the evaluation of gum tissue health.
• Retractors and props allow the dentist to pull a portion of the mouth for a better access to another area of the mouth and keep the mouth open during procedures, respectively.
• Drills are high/low speed, air driven, friction grip, surgical hand pieces that are used to cut away tooth.
• Dental burs of different types, classifications and shapes (round bur, latch type, Flat fissure, pear-shaped, football, round, tapered, flame, chamfer, bevel, bud bur, steel, inverted cone, diamond, brown stone, greenstone ) smoothen rough edges of the teeth.

The Restorative instruments that help a dentist or dental surgeon accomplish restorative dental treatments such as composite fillings, crowns, dentures and fixed bridges are:

• Excavators (smooth excavator, half hollenbach) remove the soft decay in the mouth.
• Pluggers (Amalgam, 49) are generally utilized to plug the nerve canal once the nerve is extracted.
• Periodontal Scalers (curettes, ultrasonic scalers) are for cleaning and removing dirt between teeth and for gum work.
• Burnishers of various types(flat plastic, ball burnisher, beavertail burnisher, cone burnisher, J Burnisher, pear shaped burnisher) are meant to help in filling of cavities.

Dental extraction or tooth removal is done for various reasons like tooth decay. Some of the instruments which are essential in performing extraction and other surgical procedures of the teeth are:

• Dental Forceps (Upper Universals, Upper Universal Fine, Lower universals, Upper Canine, Upper straight long, Upper straight short, Upper right molar, Upper left molar, Upper wisdom tooth, Greyhound, Root, Bayonet) come in diverse types and classifications which are similar in appearance to tongs and whose primary use is to grasp and extract the tooth.
• Elevators (Narrow and wide straight and curved luxators, Couplands, Warrick James, Cryer, periosteal elevator, root-tip pick, potts, Cogswell-A) are also of distinctive styles and types used in for various procedures like separating of tooth from membranes, extractions, loosening teeth and many more.
• Chisels are most generally used in veterinary dentistry. It is also called as dental hoe. Chisels are osteotomes or instruments for cutting and preparing bone.

Aside from the already mentioned tools, other instruments, though they perform minute roles in dental procedures are worth mentioning. They are Spatula, Fox plane, Willis Gauge, Bunsen burner, wax knife, Le cron, calipers for Removable prosthodontics. Orthodontic instruments include distal end cutters,weingarts. While Endodontic Instruments are K-file, hedstrom file, gates glidden, finger spreader, Lentulo spiral, straight probe, apex locator, microscope and plugger WHT.

For more information on dental care and dental emergencies, please visit DentalSurgery.com.au. A specialised Australian dental surgery directory with news and articles related to dentistry.