Ch. 3: Dental Instruments and Equipment Flashcards
What are the 4 dental manual cleaning instruments?
Explorers, Periodontal Probes, Scalers, and Curettes
What are explorers used for?
Used to detect plaque and calculus, explore for cavities, and check for exposed pulp chambers
What is the most commonly found explorer?
Shepherd’s Hook
What is the other type of (less common) explorer?
Pigtail explorer
What are scalers used for?
They are only used to remove calculus from the crown of the tooth
What are curettes used for?
Used for calculus removal both supragingivally and subgingivally
What are the two types of curettes?
Universal and Gracey
When using a sharpening stick, how do you tell if an instrument needs to be sharpened?
A dull blade glides over the surface without catching at all but a sharp blade will catch
What is the proper technique for sharpening instruments?
A few drops of sharpening (or mineral) oil are put on the stone, oil is spread with tissue paper, the instrument is held out on a table, and stone is moved up and down along the instrument tip
Which stone is used for fine sharpening and requires oil?
Arkansas stone
Which stone is used for coarse sharpening and requires oil?
India stone
Which stone is used for fine sharpening and requires water?
Ceramic stone
Which stone removes burs from the face of the stone?
Conical stone
What are the two methods of sharpening instruments?
Holding the instrument motionless and moving the stone or holding the stone motionless and moving the instrument
A technician is new at a clinic and realizes all the hand instruments are very dull. Which of these should she use to start the sharpening process?
A. Arkansas flat stone
B. India stone
C. Ceramic stone
D. Conical stone
B. India Stone
How do power scalers work?
By converting energy to mechanical vibration
What are the three types of power scalers?
Ultrasonic, magnetostrictive, and piezoelectric
What are the different kinds of ultrasonic tips?
Beaver tail tip and periodontal tip
What is the beaver tail tip used for?
Used to remove gross debris from crown of the tooth
What is the periodontal tip used for?
Designed to clean below the gingiva and allows access to furcations and pockets
A technician needs to remove calculus from a gingival pocket. Which hand instrument should be used?
A. Scaler
B. Explorer
C. Calculus removal forceps
D. Curette
D. Curette
A curette is the only cleaning hand instrument that should be used below the gumline. The rounded toe of the curette prevents the laceration of the gingival tissue.
A sonic scaler is not recommended and can easily damage the tooth while a rotary scaler is less likely to cause thermal damage to a tooth.
True or False
False; the opposite is true (Rotary are not recommended)
What are the 2 kind of dental units?
Electric and air-powered systems
Dental handpieces require lubrication how often?
Every day
What are the different types of bur handpieces?
Pear-shaped, crosscut fissure burs, inverted-cone burs, round burs, diamond burs and finishing burs
What is the turbine?
The internal portion of the high-speed handpiece that spins at an extremely high speed
What is a three-way syringe?
A system that has two buttons, one that sprays water, and one that sprays air
If air is flushed into tissues what can happen?
Subcutaneous emphysema
If air is flushed into a blood vessel what can happen?
Embolism
What is a phrase used in veterinary dentistry pertaining to lighting and magnification?
“If you can’t see it, you can’t do it”
The higher the _____ the better reduction in eye fatigue.
CRI (Color rendering index)
Disinfect definiton
Eliminates or reduces harmful microorganisms
Dictionary: Clean (something), especially with a chemical, in order to destroy bacteria
Sterilize definition
Kills all microorganisms and destroys the spores of various organisms
Dictionary: The process of making something free from bacteria or other living microorganisms
