DHI 102

Restorative instruments.
(From Boyd L: Dental instruments: a pocket guide, ed 3, St Louis, 2009, Saunders.)

Restorative instruments, generally made of stainless steel, are used primarily to place, condense, and carve the restorative dental materials back to the normal anatomy of the tooth:

Amalgam carrier 

Condensers

Burnisher

Carvers

Amalgam knife

Composite-placement instruments

Accessory instruments and items.
(From Boyd L: Dental instruments: a pocket guide, ed 3, St. Louis, 2009, Saunders.)

Accessory instruments are not necessarily kept on the tray but should be readily available when needed:

Spatulas

Scissors 

Dappen dish

Amalgam well

Howe pliers (also called 110 pliers)

Preset Cassettes

• Hand instruments and related accessories for a given procedure are prepared, stored, and transported together.
• Exam
• Amalgam
• Composite
• Crown and bridge
• Endodontic
• Surgical

A dental practice will have sufficient types of cassettes for most common procedures to allow adequate sterilization and preparation time before the tray is needed.

Sterile trays or cassettes are taken into the treatment area as part of the advanced preparation of the treatment room before the patient is seated.

How will you know which trays or cassettes to bring into the treatment room before seating the patient? (Look at the daily schedule and patient record to review the patient and the planned procedure.)

Instrument Sequence on a Tray

• Left-to-right setup
  • Basic setup
  • Additional examination instruments
  • Hand cutting instruments
  • Restorative instruments
  • Accessory items

How do you know the order in which to set up a tray? (The sequence is based on how instruments are transferred and used throughout a dental procedure.)

Preset restorative tray.
(Courtesy of A-dec.)

Note how the examination instruments are placed on the tray starting from the left. Following the examination instruments are the restorative instruments and then the accessory instruments.

Judging from the setup shown on the slide, what procedure is to be performed? (Amalgam-restoration placement.)

Color Coding of Instruments

• Organization
  • Instruments with bands of of same color
  • Tray of the same color
  • Tub with dental materials of the same color 

Coding of instruments with the use of colored bands on the handle is a common way of organizing instruments.

What are two reasons for using a color-coding system? (Convenience and efficiency.)