Significance

• Some of the most significant instruments used for standard dental procedures, such as examination, include the sickle probe (used to observe presence of tooth decay on the teeth), periodontal probe (used to measure pocket depth around the teeth) and the mirror (to be able to observe hard to see parts of the mouth). Another common instrument is the mouth prop, which is usually used on children to make sure that they keep their mouths open during dental procedures. Drills are also used in dental processes, and there are various kinds of drills, including the slow speed, high speed air driven, surgical hand piece and friction grip.
  
  

Theories/Speculation

• In dental operations and surgeries, instruments such as dental syringes (to assist anesthesia injection), burs (part of the drills that contain that cutting blades) and operative burs (including bevel, chamfer, football, tapered, round, diamond, greenstone, flat fissure and others styles and shapes) are commonly used.
  
  

Potential

• Standard dental tools for tooth restoration procedures include excavators (utilized for decay removal), half hollenbachs (devices used for flash or overhang tests) and periodontal scalers, such as curettes (usually used for the periodontal care of teeth). There are two different types of curettes--universal (adjustable to areas of dental dentition) and gracey (which combines a unique blade with nine different shank styles) curettes.
  
  

Function

• One of the most common dental procedures is tooth extraction. Some of the standard tools used for tooth extraction surgeries are elevators (tools used to loosen up the teeth before they are to be extracted), chisels (for enamel cleaving purposes) and dental forceps (for pulling out and grasping teeth).
  
  

Types

• There are also several different types of instruments used in orthodontic procedures in dentistry for teeth alignments, among others. A couple of these instruments are ligatures (used to attach braces wires to brackets) and orthodontic pliers (for crown crimping purposes).