Dentists and Dental Equipment

By Karen Hansson

Much of today's dental equipment has been refined over the years. The first dental instruments were drills made of flint, wooden sticks beaten to make one end fibrous and soft for scraping teeth, and the like. Evidently, man has been battling tooth decay and oral disease since time immemorial.

We can best show the kinds and use of certain types of dental equipment by illustrating them in use during a visit to the dentist.

Dentistry in the Barbershop?
A lot of people dread a trip to the dentist's office. To them it holds about as much appeal as a medieval torture chamber. They can take solace in the fact that conditions now are much better than they ever were in the Middle Ages. It's hard to imagine anyone going into their local haircutter's nowadays and having their tooth pulled, but that was what happened then for the common folk with unsterilized instruments and no anesthesia.

Nowadays, dentists are much better trained. They or their assistants will often explain to the patient what the dental procedure is and what and where it will be done to allay the patient's fears of the unknown and to also inform them. This begins even before the patient has set foot in the operating room.

Filling a Tooth
Once the patient has sat down in the specially-designed dentist's chair, the assistant will usually prep them, placing a bib or napkin to catch any spills, talking to and reassuring the patient as the dentists readies the necessary tools for the procedure. This can include such instruments as an explorer, a probe designed to do exactly what its name says. If the patient is scheduled for a tooth filling, then the dentist will first apply an anesthetic to deaden the nerves. A topical gel to numb the gums prior to the injection is available too. After the Novocain, the dental procedure will continue with the dentist drilling into the tooth using a diamond-tipped bur to remove as much caries or diseased tooth material as possible. He or she can also use an instrument with a spoon-shaped tip called an excavator to do this task. The drilling will produce a lot of spray and dust, so the assistant will be there to suck all that up with an HVE (high-volume evacuator). The patient will also have a saliva evacuator placed at the floor of the mouth to suck up excess fluid that might pool there.

Once the dentist has removed all the caries, he or she then prepares the filling called the amalgam. This is then stuffed into the cavity and carefully compressed and shaped with a variety of tools such as condensers, burnishers, cleoid/discoids, and Hollenbacks. When everything is done, the dentist will ask the patient to bite down on articulating paper and judge if everything feels okay. If it does, the dentist then flosses and removes any material which might have gotten stuck in between the teeth while he or she was working. With that through, the patient's chair is returned to an upright position, their face is cleaned, and they are asked to rinse their mouth out with some mouthwash, and the napkin is removed. Voila! A stronger and healthier, pain-free tooth in minutes.

Karen Hansson is specialized in medicine and health issues. She writes regularly on sethson.com. You can read more about dental equipment there.