Dental Tools Your Oral Professional May Use on You

When a dentist peers and pokes in your mouth, they need to be able to see in all the nooks and crannies. To get the best possible view, the dentist uses a dental mirror. Much like the name describes, the dental mirror is a small mirror that allows the dentist to view all areas in the mouth.

In the world of a dentist, a multitude of dental mirrors is available. Some are even built not to fog up when the patient breathes.

Understanding that the dental mirror won't hurt you goes a long way in relaxing when the dentist places the mirror near your mouth.

Some people have a fear of the dentist. While most people hold some reluctance to making a trip to the dentist, others quiver at the prospect of a dentist visit. The dental drill doesn't help the fear.

This is the item that scares people, and there's a couple of good reasons why. When the dental drill gets pulled out, you know something is wrong with your teeth. The sound also produces a shrill pitch that strikes fear into a lot of people.

Typically, the dental drill removes decay and helps shape the tooth when the dentist prepares a filling or crown. It's a necessary tool to help fix your teeth.

The sickle probe looks menacing, and its history may cause you to wince. However, the sickle probe needs to be used to help expose cavities.

Many dental probes exist, and the sickle version is getting phased out of use. Dentists think other types of probes may be better suited to detect cavities.

But, that doesn't mean you shouldn't know about it. The sickle probe helps detect cavities and ends up maintaining your mouth in the long run. Your dentist may still use this tool on you.

Personalization is essential when a dentist works on your teeth and your mouth. That's why, when specific procedures get performed, dental impressions are created.

A dental impression is just a mold of your teeth. Many instances call for dental molds, including mouth guards, crowns, and dentures. Each one of those requires a copy of your teeth to make sure that whatever you receive fits well.

You bite down on a material for a set amount of time. The material has liquid in it, and you bite down on this material. After a while, the liquid hardens. The dentist then extracts this hardened liquid. Now, you have a replica of whatever portion of the mouth you needed copied.

Needles. Almost everyone houses a fear of them. It turns out that you can't even escape the needle at the dentist's office. However, it heavily depends on the procedure performed.

Commonly, the syringe dispenses an anesthetic. So, any time you need numbing, a dental syringe will probably be used.

Most dental tools carry with them a sense of fear, but the dental syringe helps you out. The point of the anesthetic is to make sure you don't feel anything when the procedure starts. In essence, it's a blessing in disguise.

Dental tools vary with their uses and how much fear they inflict. But, the saliva ejector is one of the more light-hearted instruments you find in the dentist's office.

Almost everyone has experienced the use of the saliva ejector, and it's an interesting experience, to say the least.

When cleaning your teeth, saliva builds up in your mouth. For the dentist, this isn't the best situation to be in when working on your teeth.

The saliva ejector sucks out all the saliva that builds up. It's the suction tool you're probably intimately familiar with.

One of the most common elements of a dentist visit is the general checking of teeth. Whatever procedure awaits you, a full check of your teeth always ensues. That is where the dental scaler comes into play.

The scaler looks a lot like the dental probe, but the use for the instrument is different than that of the probe. Out of all the dental tools, the dental scaler's use involves scraping plaque off of teeth and getting in between the cracks of the teeth to clean them.

Typically, the use of a scaler on the teeth doesn't hurt. That comes as a relief to even the most fearful patient.

If the dental scaler sits on the tamer end of the dental instrument spectrum in terms of pain, then the forceps reside on the other end. By themselves, the forceps don't hurt. But, it's what the forceps do that makes you cry out in pain.

The forceps help extract teeth. Whether the teeth are rotting or there's some other problem that needs to be resolved, the forceps evoke the most fear.

Luckily, the use of forceps should be minor. If you have relatively healthy teeth, you won't see the forceps for quite some time.

It sounds intimidating. After all, who wants lasers blasted into their mouth? Luckily, the uses for the dental lasers aren't all that bad.

The world of dental tools evolve every few years, and the dental laser is another step in this evolution. Uses for the dental laser range from removing inflamed gum tissue and reshaping the bone to speeding up the process when whitening your teeth.

A thin, concentrated beam of light energy comes out of the instrument. Different lasers mean different wavelengths of light. These different wavelengths are used in different types of procedures.

A dental chisel is a dental tool that not too many people experience. It's not as bad as it sounds either, as the purpose of the dental chisel is more benign than many may think.

The chisel helps smooth out bone or enamel of the teeth when the dentist performs operations. It's a tool used to make sure your teeth are the best they can be.